Central African Republic-Latest Updates 17 January 2007
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• On 16th January Reuters reported that rebels in Central African Republic attacked a town used as a hub by Western aid agencies in the violent Chad border area after blowing up a bridge to hinder army reinforcements.
• An army officer who identified himself only as Lieutenant Gatiga said rebels calling themselves the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy had attacked the town of Paoua, around 400 km (250 miles) from the capital Bangui on 13th January.
• Gatiga said the attackers had blown up a bridge in the village of Letele beforehand to slow army reinforcements sent from the larger town of Bozoum, 100 km (60 miles) to the south.
• Gatiga's account could not be independently verified, and there was no indication of the extent of the attack. Land lines and mobile telephone links, often poor across the country, were not working between Bangui and Paoua.
• The town is used by international aid agencies as a hub for distributing food and other supplies to tens of thousands of people forced from their homes by months of violence.
• A foreign aid worker in the capital Bangui confirmed the weekend attack, but could not be sure who was responsible.
• On 16th January, as reported by the United Nation Department of Public Information (DPI) the United Nations Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in that country, Toby Lanzer, said that an increasingly grim security situation in northern Central African Republic threatened the progress made since elections in 2005.
• He said that, while things were looking up (a President and Government were in place; technocrats were returning to help their country; and there were improved macroeconomic indicators, 6 ) the conflict in the north had affected about a million people, 750,000 of them directly. More than 150,000 Central Africans had been internally displaced; 50,000 more had fled north into Chad; and 30,000 been forced westward into Cameroon.
Type of document : Update
Country : CF CAF 140 Central African Republic
Publication date 2007-Jan-17
