A few days before the presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, December 27, 2020, the Central African Republic is facing a political crisis marked by a series of violence throughout the weekend. Between the sounds of boots, external intervention, threats between political actors, everything suggests that the country’s internal security may be threatened. Outgoing President Faustin Archange Touadera, who is running for his own succession, is not even planning to postpone the election.
According to the Central African government, a coalition of armed groups is conducting offensives against the national army and the UN mission’s peacekeepers, whose mission is to secure the vote. The country also announced on Monday, December 21, 2020 that Rwanda and Russia have sent soldiers to help the government army control strategic areas.
The political authorities are worried about the evolution of the situation since the largest armed groups, including the Seleka and anti-balaka militias, have announced their alliance called Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC). However, the Central African government is convinced that these attacks are the work of former President François Bozizé. He is accused of attempted coup d’état and a clear willingness to use weapons to march on the city of Bangui, the capital and the largest city in the Central African Republic. Accusations totally denied by the former head of state who see it as a ruse of the government to undermine its reputation.
The threat is real and the inhabitants are crossing their fingers hoping not to relive the scenario of 2013 when a coalition of armed groups with Muslim dominance called the Seleka overthrew President François Bozizé. A counter-insurgency of essentially Christian and animist anti-balaka militias was formed. A situation that plunged the country into a real bloodbath with thousands of deaths and several displaced.
François Bozizé, whose candidacy was rejected by the Constitutional Council, is gathering the opposition to demand the postponement of the elections. For him, the fraud has already settled so that the outgoing president, Faustin Archange Touadera, wins the elections on the evening of December 27, 2020. According to government spokesman Maxime Kazagui, a postponement not to be considered: “It is not up to candidates to ask for the suspension of elections, it is the Constitutional Court and the National Agency for Elections (ANE) that decide,” without failing to reaffirm the position of the Central African State: “the government’s position is that we are going to elections. We put a lot of effort into these elections. Central Africans want to vote.”
