Rebels take key Central African city

BANGUI, Central African Republic: Rebels in the Central African Republic on Sunday seized the key south-central city of Bambari after battling government forces, witnesses said, despite saying last week they would suspend their offensive.
“Following an hour of fighting, the city fell into the hands of the rebels who now control the city center,” a witness told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Bambari Bishop Edouard Mathos confirmed the report.
The army “was headed toward Bria (under rebel control since Tuesday) but at five kilometers (three miles) north of Bambari, the rebels attacked,” the witness said.
Mathos said soldiers were withdrawing to Grimari, some 40 kilometers from Bambari, a key market town that had been an army stronghold in the impoverished landlocked country.
The sound of gunfire could be clearly heard in the background while Mathos was talking to AFP by telephone.
Neither the government nor the army was immediately available to confirm the report.
The rebel coalition known as Seleka took up arms earlier this month and has seized several towns in the north to demand “respect” of different peace deals signed between 2007 and 2011. They accuse President Francois Bozize of failing to implement the accords.
On Friday, a rebel spokesman said Seleka had suspended fighting to give planned talks with the government a chance.
But the following day, Seleka said it was resuming its fight and claimed to control the nearby gold-mining town of Ndassima and the central town of Ippy.
Regional leaders who met Friday in the Chadian capital N’Djamena called for peace talks in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, where the Economic Community Community of Central African States is based.
They gave the rebels a one-week deadline to withdraw from their positions.
Bozize took power in a coup in March 2003.
The mineral-rich Central African Republic, with a population of five million, is notorious for its history of coups and army mutinies.