Central African Republic: what is the strategy of the rebellion now?
View of Bangui, Central African Republic.
REUTERS - Siegfried Modola
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Will the state of emergency be prolonged in the Central African Republic?
The National Assembly, meeting in extraordinary session, must decide this Friday.
It was set up in the wake of the offensive launched against Bangui by the coalition of CPC armed groups in mid-January.
Since then, the rebellion has not threatened the capital directly, but in the interior of the country, the situation seems to be bogged down on the ground.
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With our special correspondent in Bangui
,
Florence Morice
In recent times,
the CPC rebels
have appeared to avoid direct clashes with the CAR armed forces and their allies as much as possible.
For example, they put up almost no resistance before releasing Boda or Bossembélé.
But these are "
strategic retreats
" believes a military source.
"
Rather than exhausting themselves in combat, they go into the bush, then move in small groups, to disperse and weaken their adversaries
" estimates this source.
Added to this is their strategy of blocking the Douala-Bangui axis, which complicates the supply of their enemies and suffocates its capital, by depriving the Central African State of revenue linked to customs taxes.
“
A strategy of attrition
”, notes one observer: “
maintain pressure and insecurity to push Bangui to negotiate
.
"
Last Friday, in Luanda the heads of state of the Great Lakes region called on the rebels for an "
immediate and unilateral ceasefire
".
"
We are open to a dialogue, but as long as our positions are attacked we will continue our operations,
" promises Aboubakar Sidick Ali, one of the spokesman for the rebellion.
“A ceasefire,” he said, “is never unilateral”.
For its part, the Central African State is continuing its counter-offensive to try to loosen the water around Bangui and free the axis leading to Cameroon.
President Touadéra is also expected, according to his entourage, to speak about requests for dialogue, during a speech this Saturday.
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