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Yaounde/Bangui:
Central African Republic slid into anarchy after its President
Francois Bozize fled to Cameroon Sunday as rebels in his country
seized capital Bangui.
A helicopter of the presidency of the Central African Republic
carrying Bozize landed at 6.00 p.m. local time at the aerodrome of
Batouri, the capital of Kadey department, east of Cameroon, a
source of the Cameroonian defence ministry told Xinhua.
Accompanying Bozize on board were his two sons and his
aide-de-camp.
Bozize left his presidential palace at least 30 minutes before
guerrillas who call themselves Seleka launched an assault on the
compound, the presidency said.
Seleka, a loose rebel coalition of five factions, launched an
insurgency in December 2012, accusing the government of failing to
implement a series of peace accords signed in the Gabonese capital
Libreville over the past five years.
Seleka launched a lightening blitz this week after giving the
government a deadline to honor a peace deal signed in January to
release political prisoners, integrate rebels into the national
army and pull out South African and Ugandan troops deployed in the
country to protect the Bangui-based government.
Rampant looting was reported by some residents in Bangui. Homes,
shops, restaurants and cars were all fair game for looters across
the city of 600,000 people.
The violence and chaos in the mineral-rich African country drew
attention from the world community.
Amid grave concern about a state of anarchy, France said it had
sent 350 troops to its former colony, where it now has 600
military personnel.
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