25 March 2013/13 Jumada l-Ula 1434/05 Farvardin 1391/14 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

“The council has decided to suspend with immediate effect Central African Republic from all African Union activities and to impose sanctions, travel restrictions and an asset freeze on Seleka’s leaders.”-Ramtane Lamamra, African Union peace and security chief

Did you already forget about the U.S./U.K. supported French invasion of Mali?  France is still slugging it out in that North West African country, and now they’ve invaded the Central African Republic (with U.S./U.K. help of course).

This is because rebel forces have taken over the country’s capital city of Bangui, and President Francois Bozize is now reported as missing.

Rebel leaders have already declared a new government. The African Union is refusing to recognize the new government.  France actually invaded over the weekend, reporting that they’ve captured (there were no rebel fighters there) the airport near the capital city.

A few days ago French officials had asked for a UN Security Council resolution to prevent the rebels from taking the capital city.  The United Nations now condemns the rebel take over of CAR.

South Africa, a member of the African Union, is reporting that 13 of their troops were killed and 27 wounded, as 2000 CAR rebels stormed the capital city.  One South African ‘peacekeeper’ is missing: “Our soldiers paid the ultimate price in the service of their country. Just over 200 of our soldiers fought bandits who wanted to cause harm…..”-Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa

South Africa still has military personnel in CAR, and at this point officials have decided to keep them in the fight.

While CAR has no significant petroleum deposits it is surrounded by countries that do, and European and U.S. companies have invested a lot of money into those countries.  The fear, as in Mali, is that the ‘extremists’ will spread into the oil rich U.S./European dominated countries.