Central Africa coup leader sworn in as president

Google – AFP, Michel Cariou (AFP), 18 August 2013

Michel Djotodia speaks on Republic Plaza in Bangui on March 30, 2013

(AFP/File, Sia Kambou)

BANGUI — Former rebel leader Michel Djotodia swore in as president of the Central African Republic on Sunday, five months after seizing power in the violence-wracked country.

The former French colony's sixth president is tasked with restoring security in the impoverished state and steering the nation through a transition period leading to fresh polls within 18 months.

Djotodia swore the oath of office on the Transition Charter, which has substituted for the constitution since the ouster of Francois Bozize, who himself came to power on the back of a military coup in 2003.

He vowed "to preserve the peace, to consolidate national unity (and) to ensure the well-being of the Central African people" before members of the Constitutional Court.

"My greatest wish... is to be the last Central African to use force to seize political power, so finally constitutional order are not just empty words," he said.

Map of the Central African Republic,

 with President Michel Djotodia

(AFP Graphics)

After ousting Bozize from power last March, Djotodia's Seleka rebel alliance won de facto recognition from the international community and a shot at steering the nation through the transition period leading to fresh polls.

Five months on, however, the picture is bleak, with reports of widespread rape, recruitment of child soldiers and weapons proliferation prompting United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to say the Central African Republic needed the world's "urgent attention."

Earlier this month, the UN warned that the country could become a "failed state."

Djotodia vowed to combat insecurity in an address marking the nation's 53rd anniversary of independence from France last Tuesday.

An African peacekeeping force has begun deploying in the capital Bangui, which seems to be stabilising, even though gunfire could be heard overnight.

But no peacekeepers in the force that will eventually number 2,500 soldiers and 1,000 police officers are stationed outside of the capital, and people in the vast, lawless countryside live in a "permanent climate of fear," according to the UN.

A UN report said that Djotodia's Seleka fighters, many of whom have not been paid in months, were to blame for much of the chaos and that the group's hierarchy is doing little to stop them.

It listed "arbitrary arrests and detention, sexual violence against women and children, torture, rape, targeted killings, recruitment of child soldiers and attacks, committed by uncontrolled Seleka elements and unidentified armed groups throughout the country."

The International Federation for Human Rights said in July it had documented at least 400 murders by Seleka-affiliated groups since March. Bar a few arrests in Bangui, all those killings have gone unpunished.

Michel Djotodia (centre) shakes hands\

 with France's Ambassador Gilbert Mucetti

 on April 4, 2013 in Bangui (AFP/File, 

Patrick Fort)

A group of Bozize supporters calling themselves the Front for the Return of Constitutional Order in Central Africa dismissed the inauguration as a masquerade.

"This swearing-in is illegitimate because Mr Djotodia owes his position only to the force of Kalashnikovs and foreign mercenaries," it said in a statement.

The landlocked nation has 4.6 million inhabitants scattered over a territory larger than France, replete with untapped mineral wealth and bordering other chronically unstable countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and South Sudan.

The relentless violence since the March coup has forced tens of thousands from their homes, with the UN refugee agency reporting on Tuesday that 4,000 have crossed into Chad over the past month alone.

UNHCR said more than 60,000 Central Africans had fled their country and 200,000 been internally displaced since the crisis erupted in December 2012.

With thousands of families still living in the bush, afraid to return to their homes, Save the Children warned that children faced "the threat of sexual abuse, disease and recruitment into armed groups."

As his country descends into lawlessness, the ousted Bozize resurfaced in France and said earlier this month that he was ready to take power again "if the opportunity presents itself."