CAR officials say 300 rebels disarm as country tries to organize local elections

United Nations peacekeepers stand in the market in Bouar, Central African Republic, March 8, 2024. [AP photo]

Officials in the Central African Republic say at least 300 rebels have dropped their weapons in the past month in an operation jointly organized by United Nations peacekeeping forces and government troops.

Yet, while a total of about 5,000 fighters have put down their arms in the past decade, peace seems to elude the troubled nation.

Officials in the country say the rebels who have dropped their weapons since June 10 belong to the Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement, or CPC.

The government sees the CPC as a network of six rebel groups created in 2020 to disrupt the country's presidential and legislative elections in December of that year.

Government spokesperson Balalou Maxime, speaking on state television Wednesday, congratulated the approximately 250 CPC rebels for dropping their weapons when attacked by the Central African Republic military. He said he wants other rebels still hiding in the bush to know that they will be killed if they do not do the same.

This week, forces of the U.N. stabilization movement in the Central African Republic, or MINUSCA, said an additional 44 fighters of another rebel group, the UPC, laid down their arms in the southeastern town of Mboki. MINUSCA said many weapons were seized but gave no further details.

Central African Republic officials say the operation to neutralize armed groups or get fighters to surrender is aimed at making the country more peaceful before local elections slated for October.

These would be the first local elections in the country since 1988.

At least 5,000 rebels have surrendered their arms within the past 11 years, officials say, but fighting has yet to stop. The U.N. says some of the rebels who surrender end up rejoining armed gangs due to hardship and poverty.

Halidou Halale, president of Cattle Ranchers Union in the Central African Republic, stressed that rebels who are cattle ranchers are willing to drop their weapons in exchange for a few cattle or goats as a source of livelihood. He said rebels either refuse to surrender or they return to armed groups after surrender because of hunger.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have often reported that rebel and armed groups in the country commit war crimes, including deliberately killing civilians, raping women and girls, and destroying civilian property.

In 2019, the government and 14 armed groups signed an African Union and U.N.-sponsored peace agreement. However, the deal failed to stop the fighting, as six of the 14 armed groups refused to honor their commitments following disagreements over power sharing and amnesty for arrested or fleeing rebels.

The Central African Republic has been wracked with violence and instability since 2013, when a rebel group forced then-President Francois Bozize out of office.