BANGUI, Central African Republic: Central African Republic strongman Michel Djotodia was set to unveil a new government even though looters were on the rampage in the capital Bangui yesterday.
Djotodia’s Seleka rebel coalition had earlier seized control in a rapid-fire weekend assault that forced President Francois Bozize into exile and was condemned by the international community.
He announced he would rule by decree.
“There is pillaging everywhere, it’s very hard to control anything,” a soldier from the FOMAC African force told AFP.
The city remained tense, with hundreds of people roaming the streets on foot, many of them looking for food, and rebel patrols occasionally shooting bursts of gunfire into the air to disperse onlookers.
Djotodia said he will keep Nicolas Tiangaye as prime minister in a power-sharing government after declaring Monday that he was suspending the constitution and dissolving Parliament and government.
“During that transition period which will lead us to free, credible and transparent elections, I will legislate by decree,” he told reporters.
He promised elections for 2016 and did not rule out running in the polls.
The African Union suspended the landlocked former French colony on Monday, and the UN Security Council condemned the coup, threatening unspecified “further measures.”
The power change followed a lightning rebel offensive that shattered a Jan. 11 power-sharing deal between the old regime and Seleka.
Ousted president Bozize, who himself seized power in a 2003 coup, fled and on Monday was in Cameroon, where authorities said he would be moving on “to another host country.”
Members of his family have fled to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and yesterday arrived in the capital Kinshasa, according to a government spokesman.
Djotodia, who is about 60, is a former civil servant and diplomat. But since 2005 he has been one of the leading figures among the rebels.
The Seleka rebels were initially welcomed by residents waving palm leaves in celebration, but the mood quickly darkened as looters took to the streets.
The international aid agency Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF), said the violence had prevented critically wounded patients from getting proper treatment and called on all sides to let their staff do their job. MSF also reported that its offices had been pillaged during the unrest.
Djotodia vowed to press on with the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former rebels that has been the core grievance of his Seleka movement.
The exact number of casualties from the weekend fighting was not known. South Africa, which sent troops to the country at Bozize’s request, had announced that 13 of its soldiers had been killed in clashes with the rebels, the nation’s heaviest post-apartheid military loss. South African President Jacob Zuma said there were no immediate plans to withdraw troops who were deployed alongside the weak national army.
Former colonial power France, which sent 300 troops over the weekend to reinforce 250 soldiers stationed there, said its forces had shot dead two Indian nationals who were approaching the airport in speeding vehicles Monday.
The shooting happened “in a particularly confusing situation” after French troops had been fired upon “from an unknown source,” said the French Defense Ministry.
A statement from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed “deep distress” over the deaths. French President Francois Hollande had written to him expressing his regret and promising an investigation, it added.
Chaos as rebels take over in C. African Republic
