CAR rebels say they took 2nd town, govt denies this
Source: Reuters
BANGUI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic said they had captured a second town in the northeast on Friday, but the government said it remained in army hands although there had been clashes. A rebel coalition opposed to President Francois Bozize has held Birao, the capital of the remote, rugged Vakaga prefecture since its fighters seized it on Oct. 30. Bozize this week ordered government forces to move to recapture Birao. A spokesman for the rebel coalition, which calls itself the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR by its French initials), told Reuters its forces early on Friday occupied Ouanda Djalle, 150 km (miles) south of Birao. "All of Vakaga is under our control," Captain Abakar Sabone said, speaking by telephone. He said 20 government troops were killed in the attack and 12 more were taken prisoner. The rebels suffered three dead and two wounded, Sabone said. But Bozize's spokesman, Cyriaque Gonda, denied the town had fallen. "Ouanda Djalle remains in the hands of government forces," he told Reuters. But he said there had been "some skirmishes" along the road between the two towns. There was no independent confirmation of the contrasting claims about the fighting in Vakaga, a remote and lawless corner of Central African Republic, a former French colony which is one of the poorest countries in the world. A diplomat in Bangui said the rebels' occupation of Birao gave them effective control over the main populated area of the northeast, which borders with Chad and Sudan. "Almost all the rest outside Birao is a huge swamp," he added. Leaders of the rebel group occupying Birao, more than 800 km (500 miles) northeast of Bangui, have demanded Bozize's government accept talks on power sharing. But the president has so far ignored this call and this week called on his army to retake the town. Bozize's government says the occupiers of Birao came from Sudan's western Darfur region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million forced from their homes by political and ethnic conflict since 2003. It has called for international peacekeepers to be deployed to secure Central African Republic's porous borders with Chad and Sudan. Bangui has also appealed for military assistance from former colonial power France and African allies. Sudan, which is resisting international pressure for the deployment of a robust U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, denies Bozize's allegation that it armed the rebel raiders and sent them over the border to destabilise his country. Foreign military experts doubt the government's small 4,500-strong army can retake Birao without outside help. But they add the town's remoteness means the rebels do not appear able to seriously threaten the capital Bangui in the south. The UFDR rebels have said they are willing to allow humanitarian organisations to visit the town, but diplomats said this was unlikely to happen while military activity was taking place in the area.
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