CEMAC commander seeks support of Bangui district leaders

The commander-in-chief of the peace force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC), Rear-Adml Martin Mavoungou, has urged all district and neighbourhood leaders of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), to help restore security in the city, state-run Radio Centrafrique reported on Saturday. Speaking on Saturday during a meeting convened by the minister of territorial administration, Marcel Malonga, Mavoungou said: "We have achieved the main part of what was indispensable to bring security to an acceptable level in Bangui." He told local leaders that they would now be responsible for the rest. The country has been in a state of insecurity even after former army chief-of-staff Francois Bozize seized power in a coup on 15 March. Former rebels loyal to Bozize, now the country’s leader, and other civilians have been engaging in armed robbery. The CEMAC force and the CAR security forces have launched a massive disarmament drive to curb the violence, but complain the lack public support. "Most neighbourhood leaders have become protectors or even accomplices of armed robbers," Malonga said during the same meeting. Mavoungou said that after the disarmament effort most armed robbers withdrew to the suburbs, from where they now launched attacks on the town. He announced that three telephone numbers had been made public for any emergency. "We have the capability to intervene within 10-20 minutes," he said. With a new mandate since 2 June, the CEMAC force has now 380 troops among whom 139 are from Gabon, 121 from Chad and 120 from the Republic of Congo. The new mandate includes securing and defending Bangui as well as provincial towns and main transportation routes; securing the northern regions of the country; disarmament; and restructuring the national army. From 14-25 July, two-thirds of CEMAC's troops patrolled and disarmed the bearers of illegal weapons in the war-ravaged north, where armed men have been terrorising the populous. Since then, most provincial civil and military authorities have reported to their duty stations, thereby encouraging the displaced who had remained in hiding to return to their homes.