C. African Republic president overthrown by rebels
Source: AP-Excite
By HIPPOLYTE MARBOUA and KRISTA LARSON
BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) - Rebels overthrew Central African Republic's president of a decade on Sunday, seizing the presidential palace and declaring that the desperately poor country has "opened a new page in its history." The country's president fled the capital, while extra French troops moved to secure the airport, officials said.
The rebels' invasion of the capital came just two months after they had signed a peace agreement that would have let President Francois Bozize serve until 2016. That deal unraveled in recent days, prompting the insurgents' advance into Bangui and Bozize's departure to a still unpublicized location.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the unconstitutional seizure of power and called for the swift restoration of constitutional order, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The U.N. chief appealed for calm and reiterated that the January peace agreements "remain the most viable framework to ensure durable peace and stability in the country," Nesirky said. Ban also expressed deep concern at reports of serious human rights violations.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130325/DA57RQ7G1.html
In this Jan. 5, 2013 file photo, government security forces in a pickup truck drive past a demonstration calling for peace as negotiators prepare for talks with rebels from the north, in downtown Bangui, Central African Republic Saturday. On Friday, March 22, rebels took the town of Damara, beginning a new march to take the capital, Bangui, said a rebel spokesman. Panic spread throughout the capital, with the neighborhoods closest to the northern gate of the city emptying out, as frightened residents locked up their shops, packed their bags and yanked their children out of school. Banks and government offices closed early.(AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
struggle4progress
(118,330 posts)and flying him out of Haiti back in 2004. Bozize seized power by a coup in 2003, so my natural guess would be that Bozize was a stooge installed by rightwing covert ops boys
Aristus
(66,444 posts)This might not end well for the people of the CAR...