Central African Republic president to step down
Central African Republic‘s interim president, Michel Djotodia, is due to step down at a summit of regional leaders on Thursday amid frustration at his failure to quell religious violence in his country, diplomatic and political sources said.
“It’s finished for him now,” said a source close to Djotodia, who said he was due to step aside at the summit on Thursday in the Chadian capital N’Djamena.
A senior French diplomatic source and political sources in Bangui said Central African leaders led by Chad’s Idriss Déby had run out of patience with Djotodia, who seized power in March as the head of the Seleka rebels.
French and African troops deployed in the country have struggled to stop tit-for-tat violence between the Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias. More than 1,000 people died in clashes in December.
Djotodia, installed as interim president under a deal with regional African states, has been powerless to halt the bloodshed, which has displaced about 1 million people and stirred fears of a repeat of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
“A political stabilisation of the country is imperative,” the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told Le Parisien newspaper on Wednesday.
He declined to answer when asked if Djotodia could stay as president, saying: “It is envisaged that the countries of the region will meet on Thursday to take decisions.”
The meeting will discuss the various options for continuing the transition. The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon, who are mediating in the crisis, would then convene a meeting to discuss the transition in Bangui on 11 January, diplomatic sources said.
Source: The Guardian
