Joint military operation launched to restore security in Bangui

A joint operation, launched by the Central African Republic (CAR) military, police and gendarmerie and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) peacekeeping force in the country, began on Friday to restore security in the capital, Bangui. Speaking on government-owned Radio Centrafrique, the CAR army chief of staff, Col Antoine Gambi, said the operation was aimed at "eradicating the insecurity that still prevails in Bangui", and that the target was primarily suburbs in the city where most of the robberies had taken place. On Friday afternoon, government and CEMAC soldiers manned junctions and other strategic positions in the city, carrying out systematic searches of vehicles. Gambi said that many cases of vandalism and armed robbery had been reported in Bangui since 15 March, when Francois Bozize, a former army chief of staff, ousted President Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup. Gambi said "Patriots" - former rebels who fought alongside Bozize between October 2002 and March 2003 - were among the soldiers taking part in the operation. Many of the armed robberies and other acts of insecurity have been attributed to these former rebels, among whom are Chadian mercenaries. However, the CAR minister for communication, Parfait Mbaye, told IRIN on Wednesday that militiamen loyal to Patasse were responsible for most night attacks in Bangui. The commander of the CEMAC force, Adml Martin Mavoungou, told Radio Centrafrique that the operation would last as long as necessary. "We will do things progressively... These operations will also extend to the countryside," Mavoungou said. Most of the October 2002-March 2003 fighting between rebel and government troops took place in the north of the country. Since Bozize's coup, many northern towns and villages have been controlled by armed bands that have been accused of terrorising and preventing those displaced by the fighting from returning home. CEMAC troops, from the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Chad, have been in the country since December 2002. The force's mission was initially to protect Patasse, secure the CAR-Chad border and to restructure the army. After Bozize took power, a CEMAC summit opted to retain the troops in the CAR until the end of a transitional period to democracy, which Bozize has said will last between 18 and 30 months.