LIBREVILLE (AFP) – Rebels in the Central African Republic said Wednesday they would resume fighting after a deadline given to the government to meet their demands under a peace deal expired.
“The ultimatum is over. We will return to arms,” Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, one of the military chiefs of the Seleka rebel coalition, told AFP.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re going to attack here or there now,” he said.
But, he added, the rebels are working on a new strategy.
Seleka launched a major offensive on December 10, bringing the rebels to the outskirts of the capital Bangui. They say they are fighting because the government has failed to implement promises from earlier peace agreements such as integrating rebel fighters into the army.
A January 11 peace deal led to the formation of a power-sharing government led by a member of the opposition, Nicolas Tiangaye.
However, the pact has remained fragile and hampered by mistrust, with the rebels threatening to pull out of the power-sharing deal if their demands are not met.
The rebels on Sunday declared they would not withdraw their fighters unless the government released political prisoners and South African soldiers sent into the Central African Republic in January left the country.
Rebels also seized five ministers who joined the power-sharing government from rebel ranks and gave the government until Wednesday to fulfil their demands.
On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Tiangaye appealed to the rebels to uphold the “spirit” of the January 11 peace deal, adding that a number of their demands had never been part of the agreement but that they would be put forward to Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is acting as a mediator in the conflict.
The prime minister said he was “open to discussion” and that in the coming hours he was ready to examine “the issue of releasing prisoners”, of which he was awaiting a list.
He said a technical reshuffle of the government “could also be considered”, but underscored that dialogue was the only solution to the country’s crisis, in which he said 1.5 million people have been displaced.
“The civilian population is victim to severe human rights violations: assassinations, rapes, pillaging and theft,” he said.
On Sunday the United States voiced concern about an uptick in violence in the unstable and deeply poor Central African Republic, after four soldiers were killed in a rebel attack on a southern town.