By Irin, Part of the Guardian Development Network

Military offensive in Central African Republic adds to humanitarian crisis
By IRIN
7 March 2012

Campaign by armed forces of CAR and Chad to oust rebels has displaced thousands and left widespread insecurity

· By Irin, part of the Guardian development network

· guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 March 2012 06.38 EST

Abdel Kader, rebel leader of Chad's Front Populaire pour le Redressement, in Kaka Bandoro, Central African Republic. Photograph: Kbandoro/APA News

A joint military offensive between the armed forces of the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad to oust Chad's Front Populaire pour le Redressement (FPR) rebel movement from its stronghold in northern central CAR is hampering operations to help those who have been displaced, say humanitarian officials.

The military operation, which was launched on 23 January, is aimed at capturing FPR rebel leader "General" Abdel Kader, alias Baba Laddé, and is concentrated in the areas of Ouandago and Gondava, 80km and 45km from the main town of Kaga-Bandoro, respectively.

Following a joint attack on FPR positions on 24 January, an estimated 16,000 people were displaced, according to a bulletin from CAR's Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team (HDPT). "This number is likely to change since some regions still remain inaccessible," it added.

The area worst affected is Kabo, where internally displaced people need water and latrines, said the HDPT, noting that displaced people had also been registered in the areas of Nana Outa and Farazala and between Kabo and Kaga-Bandoro.

On 28 January CAR's government spokesman, Firmin Feindiro, said the military operations were targeting the FPR's operational centre and had led to rebel casualties after a brief resistance. But the exact toll remained unknown, with Laddé still free; reports suggest he could have fled to South Sudan.

Kaga-Bandoro's bishop, Albert Vanbuel, was quoted in the media in early February as saying the counter-rebel operations had led to widespread fear among the population as Chadian troops combed the area for FPR rebels. "They stop the so-called rebels, torture and kill them without knowing if they are rebels or not. Many innocent [people] have died this way," he said.

He added that FPR and civilian deaths had been recorded, with many corpses unburied.

Several villages in the northern part of CAR, on the road between Ouandago and Gondava, have been partially or completely destroyed since the end of January, according to a recent statement by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Thousands of people have had to flee," said Katharina Ritz, head of the ICRC delegation in the capital, Bangui. "They've lost everything: their houses, their crops, all their belongings."

Insecurity continues to pose a threat to the population and humanitarian organisations, despite the military operation, according to Jean Sébastien Munie, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in CAR. "If the military operation was on the whole a success, it did not completely eradicate insecurity in the region."

The FPR rebels, who arrived in CAR from Chad in 2008, have continued to carry out sporadic attacks in parts of northern CAR as well as to recruit, mainly Fulani community members, and acquire weapons. On 2 February, an ethnic Fulani herder, suspected of belonging to the FPR, was killed by a presidential guard in Bangui. Another Fulani herder was seriously wounded and a third was reported missing.

In early February, the FPR announced that several groups, including the Parti pour la Justice et le Développement (PJD), the Convention des patriotes pour la justice et la paix (CPJP), the Union des forces démocratiques pour le rassemblement (UFDR) and the Armée populaire pour la restauration de la démocratie (APRD), whose leader Jean-Jacques Démafouth is under arrest, were to create an alliance to depose CAR's president, François Bozizé. But the APRD, a former national rebel group, denied involvement in the alliance.

The APRD and the UFDR signed peace accords with CAR's government in 2008, with members taking part in the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration process, while the CPJP signed a ceasefire agreement in 2011.