The self-proclaimed colonel of the Central African Republicās Unite pour la Paix en Centrafrique (UPC) rebel movement has been arrested by soldiers of the Central African Republic national army.
Zakaria Mahamat, assistant to the UPC zonal commander in Mboki, was arrested on Friday, September 4, 2020 in Bangassou, Mbomou Prefecture in the southwest of the country by fighters of the national army.
The UPC assistant zonal commander was travelling from Zemio Prefecture to Pombolo when he fell into an ambush of the national defence forces as he entered Bangassou.
Security sources in the national capital, Bangui, told HumAngle on Sunday that instructions had been given for Mahamat to be transferred to Bangui and this could be done by Monday or before next week.
Mahamat is suspected by the Central African Republic judiciary of being one of the principal actors behind the abduction and sequestration of two census and six vaccination agents on August 14, 2020.
He is also suspected of being responsible for the kidnapping of Dr. Blaise Bekoy and the member of parliament for Obo 2, Albert Guinimonguimi, in the locality of Mboki, in the Upper Mbomou prefecture in the southeast of the Central African Republic.
Zakaria Mahamat is also suspected to have led the UPC combatants who inĀ May attacked locationsĀ of the national army in the town of Obo in the far southeast of the country.
The arrest of Mahamat has been greeted with joy in the southwest of the country where he and his fighters visited mayhem on local communities, killing, kidnapping, raping and sacking villages making away with the properties of the inhabitants of the razed down villagers.
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