CAR: Arrest warrant issued for ex-president François Bozizé

CAR: Arrest warrant issued for ex-president François Bozizé

A UN-backed court in the Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant for the country’s exiled former President François Bozizé, AP reported.

Bozizé is wanted for human rights abuses. The warrant covers crimes from 2009 to 2013 by the presidential guard and other security forces,a spokesperson for the Special Criminal Court said.

The Special Criminal Court was set up in the capital, Bangui, to try war crimes and other human rights abuses committed during the coups and violence that the country has experienced since 2003.

Bozizé seized power in a coup in 2003, and was ousted by rebels a decade later. That led to a civil war marked by sectarian violence atrocities and the exploitation of children as soldiers.

About 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups in Central African Republic more than a decade after civil war broke out, the government said earlier this year.

The U.N., which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting killed thousands and displaced over a million people, or one-fifth of the population.

In 2019, a peace deal was reached between the government and 14 armed groups, but fighting continues.

Bozizé currently lives in exile in Guinea Bissau. The country’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló said that he had not received any request from Bangui about the arrest warrant, and that his country’s laws do not allow for extradition.