Bouba Ali Hassan, said Hassan Bouba, Minister of Livestock and Animal Health of the Central African Republic, was arrested Friday, November 19 in the office of his ministry by the judicial police, according to several sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity . The former number 2 of one of the most formidable rebel armed groups, the Union pour la Paix en Centrafrique (UPC), is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Special Criminal Court (CPS), according to an order of this court of which Agence France-Presse was able to read a copy on Saturday.
The Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world, has been the scene, since 2013, of a civil war that was initially very deadly, but which declined considerably in intensity after 2018. The CPS is a hybrid court, made up of magistrates Central Africans and internationals, responsible for judging in Bangui the serious human rights violations committed in the country since 2003.
Attack on an IDP camp in 2018
THE’“Committal order” of the CPS consulted by AFP, no more than anonymous sources, do not specify what are the facts that justify these “Charges”. But last August, the American NGO The Sentry said after a very detailed investigation that the head of the UPC, Ali Darassa, and his number two at the time, Bouba Ali Hassan, were directly responsible for the he attack on a camp for displaced people in November 2018 in Alindao, 500 kilometers east of Bangui, which resulted in the death of at least one hundred and twelve villagers, including nineteen children.
The charges are extremely heavy and present him as one of the alleged perpetrators of massacre and torture: “War crimes” and “Crimes against humanity by murder, inhumane acts” and “Cruel treatment such as torture”, we read in the order of the judges of the CPS who interviewed him on Friday and ordered his “Provisional imprisonment” right after.