UN-backed court issues warrant for Central African ex-leader

BANGUI, (Central African Republic): A UN-backed court announced Tuesday it has issued an arrest warrant for the Central African Republic’s former president Francois Bozize over possible crimes against humanity committed by the military between 2009 and 2013.

The alleged crimes include murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other inhumane acts, according to the Special Criminal Court (CPS), a hybrid jurisdiction located in the capital Bangui with Central African and foreign magistrates.

Bozize, 77, seized power in Central Africa in 2003 in a coup before being overthrown 10 years later. He now heads the country’s main rebellion and has been in exile in Guinea-Bissau since March 2023.

The international warrant was issued on February 27, according to CPS, which was set up in 2015 with UN sponsorship. The CPS is calling for Guinea-Bissau’s cooperation to “arrest” and “hand over the suspect”.

The court is in charge of investigating war crimes committed since 2003 in the country, which has endured civil wars and authoritarian regimes since independence from France in 1960.

The court’s magistrates are probing possible “crimes against humanity” committed by Bozize’s presidential guard between February 2009 and March 2013 at a civilian prison and at a military training facility in the central town Bossembele.

The judges concluded that “the existence of serious and consistent evidence against (Bozize), likely to incur his criminal liability, in his capacity as hierarchical superior and military leader”.

A civil war has plagued the former French colony since a Muslim-dominated armed coalition, Seleka, ousted Bozize in 2013.

Bozize set-up militias dominated by Christians and animists, known as anti-Balakas, to regain power.

Thousands of civilians were killed and both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United Nations.

The conflict lost intensity after 2018, but the country still suffers bouts of violence and remains deeply poor.