/ 12 July 2014

Former CAR president renamed as Seleka leader

Michel Djotodia led the rebel Séléka militia that swept him to power last year.
Michel Djotodia led the rebel Séléka militia that swept him to power last year.

The former president of war-torn Central African Republic (CAR), Michel Djotodia, who led the rebel Séléka militia that swept him to power last year, was renamed as head of the movement on Saturday.

Djotodia fled power in January under strong international pressure for his failure to rein in rogue ex-rebels, who relentlessly murdered, raped and looted civilians.

“As well as the continuation of Djotodia, the former second and third-in-command, Nourredine Adam and Mohammed Moussa Dhaffane, were reappointed during the general assembly,” said a source close to Séléka.

The ex-president of the landlocked former French colony is subject to United States and United Nations sanctions, as is Séléka’s second-in-command Adam and former president François Bozizé.

Séléka, which is still engaged in violence in central and northern regions, has been plagued by infighting since it was forced from Bangui in January, in part owing to the intervention of French and African troops in December 2013.

The CAR, home to around 4.5-million people, has seen more than a year of unrest, with tit-for-tat violence between the mainly Muslim Séléka and predominantly Christian anti-balaka militants claiming thousands of lives and displacing about a quarter of the population. – AFP