News Central have gathered that a new armed group has been announced in the Central African Republic, named Coalition Siriri.
A political wing of the organisation was already established in 2019. It made a commitment to work only for peace at the time.
However, since the coalition’s military wing was established, its goals have shifted from promoting peace to waging war.
Some political observers in Bangui claim that the organisation was created by Moustapha Sabone, the elder brother of CPC spokesperson Abakar Sabone, and lacks a political doctrine of its own and is instead beholden to President Faustin Archange Touadera.
According to reliable sources in Bangui, the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which has been battling to topple President Touadera’s administration, is the group’s main target. It is reportedly made up of of Chadian and Sudanese mercenaries.
Other political experts, however, assert that Coalition Siriri is a politico-military organisation that is vehemently hostile to the administration of President Touadera.
“It is very easy to identify their political position through their multiple press statements published in the past”, the source noted.
Senior Coalition Siriri leaders claim that their organisation now has roughly a thousand warriors, and that their next move will be to establish a Siriri military high command.
Currently, the rebel organisation is centered mostly in Saraibo, which is situated between Vakaga and Bamingui-Bangoran. Their military operations on the ground in the next weeks will reveal their true objectives and whose political camp they support. In the meanwhile, the battles on the ground have not been straightforward.
“For the past one week now, FACA forces and their Russian allies of Wagner Security Group have been facing very difficult times in Batangafo and Bouca. The two towns are right now encircled by combatants of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) led by former head of state Francois Bozize”, a civil society source in Bangui told newsmen evening.
It has been 10 days since the significant presence of CPC rebels was first reported near Bouca and afterwards in Batangafo, the chief town of the Ouham-Fafa prefecture, located 380 kilometres northwest of Bangui, according to a source at the intelligence agency of the FACA northwest military high command.
Other rebel columns are en route to Bossangoa, according to military authorities in the two towns, leading the military high command to raise the military alert to “the highest level throughout the country with a view to bolstering the security dispositions of the population.”
“Within the past two weeks, fear has changed camp and the national authorities are living on their toes with the fear of the possibility of CPC combat columns arriving Bangui at any time. Some senior government officials have already started crossing the border to the DR Congo to search for accommodation to which they would resort should things take a turn for the worst”, revealed a political analyst who opted for anonymity.