The former Central African Republic (CAR) President, François Bozizé, 76, who was, among others, accused of trying to sabotage the December 27, 2020 election process in the country, after he was not permitted to stand for election, has gone into exile in Guinea-Bissau, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has confirmed. According to reports, Bozizé, the leader of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) which was formed by several armed groups in December 2020 – landed in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, on March 2, aboard a special flight from Chad, where he had been hiding since 2021. ALSO READ: CAR voters turn up in numbers despite militia threats: UN Today, I received the former President of the CAR François Bozize for humanitarian reasons at the request of the Economic Community of Central African States, President Embaló, the chairperson of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), wrote on his Facebook page. In December 2020, CAR’s constitutional court invalidated five candidatures including Bozizé, who returned to the country the previous year and was then accused of fermenting trouble. The court gave reasons including: corruption, an international arrest warrant and membership of armed groups. Bozizé who ruled CAR from 2003, after he overthrew Ange Felix Patassé in a coup, until he was also kicked out in yet another coup in 2013 returned to his country at the end of 2019 and announced his intentions to contest in the December 2020 presidential election. Since his return to the country, it was mired in crises and coup attempts, with Bozizé suspected of being one of the key instigators. Rwanda has a big peacekeeping contingent serving under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), and force protection troops - trained to conduct special operations - that Kigali deployed to the country on December 20, 2020, under a bilateral agreement on defense. The deployment of the force protection troops came after the targeting of the Rwandan contingent under the UN peacekeeping mission by militia factions supported by Bozizé.
