© AFP – PATRICK FORT
Former Seleka spokesman, Colonel Christian Djouma Narkoyo, here on January 18, 2013 in Grimari north of Bangui.
In the Central African Republic, one of the former spokespersons for the Seleka coalition, Colonel Christian Djouma Narkoyo, was arrested on Saturday April 9 at the Cameroonian border. He is notably suspected of war crimes committed under the rule of the Seleka in 2013. He is currently in police custody in Bangui where a judicial investigation has been opened according to the prosecution.
With our correspondent in Bangui, Carol Valade
Christian Djouma Narkoyo is trying to cross the Cameroonian border when he is arrested this Saturday. Transferred to the capital to the Research and Investigation Section, he is still in police custody there according to the prosecution.
A simple rank-and-file soldier, Narkoyo proclaims himself “colonel” when he joins the ranks of the Seleka. He first made himself known through his statements in the media. It was he who announced the capture of the presidential palace on March 24, 2013.
The new president Michel Djotodia places him at the head of the gendarmerie. He works in particular in the premises of the CEDAD (Extraordinary Committee for the Defense of Democratic Achievements), an intelligence service directed by Noureddine Adam, of which he is a relative, who has become a torture center and an infamous illegal prison in Bangui.
He went into exile at the fall of the Seleka and disappeared from radar until today. The government has made no official statement on his arrest, but the public prosecutor at the Bangui Court of Appeal, Éric Didier Tambo, believes that he should be tried during the next criminal sessions which will open on April 29.
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