Yaounde, Cameroon — The Central African Republic said Wednesday that several hundred rebels have surrendered and handed over their weapons over to government troops and U.N. forces. The rebels surrendered less than a month after the C.A.R reached an agreement with neighboring Chad to jointly protect the two countries' 1,200-kilometer border. Officials now hope to organize local elections that were postponed in October due to insecurity.
C.A.R. officials said it was hardship and ceaseless raids by government troops that forced many rebel fighters to drop their weapons and give themselves up.
Mloubo Etienne, 36, was among several dozen fighters who defected from the Union for Peace rebel group this week. The UPC is one of the C.A.R.'s largest armed groups.
Maloubo, speaking on state TV, said he surrendered because life was becoming unbearable without food in dense tropical rainforests near the C.A.R.'s southern border. He said many UPC rebel fighters along the northern border with Chad also want to surrender because Chad government troops have shut off the regular food supply.
Maxime Balalou, the C.A.R.'s communication minister and government spokesperson, said some of the 105 fighters who surrendered their weapons in Bambari, the third-largest city in the country, belonged either to the UPC or anti-balaka rebel groups.
He said that in another operation in the central commercial town of Kouango, 36 fighters, including three women, were disarmed. Balalou said rebels who disarm voluntarily will be handed over to the C.A.R. Center for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, where they will be economically and socially reintegrated or trained to join the country's troops.
The anti-balaka are an alliance of rebel groups operating for the past 10 years.
The government says its operations consist of attacking hideouts of rebels who refuse to surrender. The goal is to establish peace before the C.A.R. holds its first local elections in 36 years. The elections originally slated for October were postponed because of insecurity and a lack of readiness by political parties.
Officials now say the elections will take place on Dec. 29, assuming conditions are favorable.
As part of efforts to organize the elections, officials from the C.A.R. and Chad met in Bangui on Oct. 23 and agreed to establish a joint security force along their 1,200-kilometer border.
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Chad said it would deploy troops to the border with the C.A.R. to stop supplies from reaching rebel groups.
The government says rebels still hiding in the bush will be killed if they do not surrender and hand their weapons over to government troops or forces of the U.N. stabilization mission in the C.A.R., or MINUSCA.
The C.A.R. says its goal is to get at least half of an estimated 21,000 rebels in the central African state to surrender by the end of 2025.
