Central African Republic’s opposition groups said Sunday they would not attend political reconciliation talks due to open Monday given the exclusion of rebel groups from the dialogue.
The country has been mired in civil war since 2013 but although President Faustin Archange Touadera last Tuesday called a ‘Republican Dialogue for reconciliation’ he first pledged 15 months ago the opposition says the rebels need a seat at the table.
“The opposition forces will not participate in the dialogue which starts tomorrow,” said opposition spokesman Nicolas Tiangaye, who represents a platform bringing together non-armed opposition groups.
Presidential spokesman Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said the dialogue would begin as scheduled Monday despite the opposition’s withdrawal.
Touadera had surprised observers by suddenly announcing the talks in a radio address with barely a week’s notice to include “the unarmed opposition and civil society”.
He first announced the idea just after his 2020 re-election in a vote which saw less than a third of the electorate able to cast their ballot in a country most of which is held by rebel forces.
“Inclusivity implies participation of all the country’s political forces … including armed groups because they are the protagonists of the crisis so we cannot resolve it by excluding them,” said Tiangaye.
His COD-2020 platform had nonetheless been indicating for months it was ready to attend the dialogue even in the likely event that armed groups would end up being excluded.
