Internally displaced people gather in the Don Bosco Center outside Bangui, Central African Republic, Saturday, Dec. 7 2013, fearing reprisal attacks from the Muslim ex-rebels who control Central African Republic. Thousands fled on foot Saturday, as others ventured outside for the first in time in days only to bury their dead following the worst violence to wrack the lawless country in months. Don Bosco officials said over 10,000 sought shelter for the night.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Central African Republic
Internally displaced people line up to access the Don Bosco Center outside Bangui, Central African Republic, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013, fearing reprisal attacks from the Muslim ex-rebels who control Central African Republic. Thousands fled on foot Saturday, as others ventured outside for the first in time in days only to bury their dead following the worst violence to wrack the lawless country in months. Don Bosco officials said over 10,000 sought shelter for the night.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
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BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — The mostly Muslim ex-rebels who control Central African Republic are patrolling neighborhoods across the capital, despite an order to return to their barracks.
President Michel Djotodia has formally dissolved the Seleka alliance of rebel groups that brought him to power in a March government overthrow, and they now consider themselves the national army. As scores of French troops arrived to help secure the beleaguered capital, Djotodia had urged the ex-Seleka to get off the streets.
However, their signature spray-painted pickup trucks bounced Sunday over rutted roads around Bangui, particularly in several predominantly Muslim neighborhoods. Half a dozen ex-Seleka sat near a major hospital with rocket-propelled grenades.
The French troops are part of a U.N.-sanctioned military intervention launched last week amid deadly sectarian violence in the former French colony.
