Central African Republic: after a day of fighting, calm has returned to Bangui
A Minusca patrol in Bangui, Central African Republic.
MARCO LONGARI / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
Life is slowly resuming its course in the Central African capital, after a day of shooting in several outlying neighborhoods.
The attackers were repulsed by the Faca and their allied forces.
Several of them were reportedly killed.
The United Nations mission also deplores the loss of a Rwandan peacekeeper.
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With our special
correspondent in Bangui
,
Alexandra Brangeon
Bangui woke up calmly on Thursday morning.
Residents feared
another rebel offensive
, but it did not take place.
In places, activity has resumed timidly.
In the city center, shops are open, however there are fewer people than usual in the street.
The government has banned the circulation of all motorcycle taxis, as the rebels themselves use motorcycles to get around.
Thousands of Bangui residents were therefore deprived of their means of transport this morning.
On Independence Avenue, the main road that leads to the north of the city, there were also fewer vehicles.
Police officers and gendarmes stopped taxis and buses this morning to carry out checks.
On the outskirts, the many small markets are still open.
What about armed groups?
Little information circulates on the state of armed groups and their presence.
They have been rejected, the government announced yesterday.
The Prime Minister spoke of about thirty assailants killed, five captured.
Yesterday, on national television, the Minister of the Interior exhibited a captured foreign fighter, without specifying his nationality.
Today, many are wondering about the means and the strategy of these rebels who descended on the capital, passing through the bush, thus avoiding the axes which descend on Bangui and which are controlled by the Faca, the Central African soldiers, supported by the Russians, Rwandan soldiers and Minusca.
Is this a strategy of harassment to put pressure on the Central African government and to be able to negotiate?
The front, in any case, is still in Boali, 85 kilometers from the capital.
But yesterday, the rebels showed their ability to get closer to Bangui.
The situation is serious.
Our country is at war.
I appeal to you strongly, so that the populations themselves organize themselves to protect the democratic gains achieved and so that we ourselves are the real army.
Today we are facing a crisis and this war that has been forced upon us and declared.
Faced with this situation, we have only one way, it is the only way.
It is because we constitute ourselves as defenders of our democracy and to ensure that the road is blocked to all those who will stand in the way.
But there, it would be necessary that we understand each other and that we belong, indeed, to this nation which is the Central African Republic.
The best democratic aspiration of the hour is that which would like us to go towards appeasement of hearts.
Émile Gros Raymond Nakombo, Mayor of Bangui
Charlotte cosset
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Central African Republic
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