President of the Central African Republic Francois Bozize speaks to the media at the presidential palace in Bangui, Central African Republic Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013. -

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Last updated: 18 minutes ago

Faustin-Archange Touadéra

A UN-backed court in the Central African Republic on Tuesday opened the trial in absentia of former president Francois Bozize over crimes against humanity committed between 2009 and 2013. The alleged crimes by members of Bozize's security forces include murder, enforced disappearance, torture and rape.

Bozize, 79, who seized power in a 2003 coup before being overthrown 10 years later by rebels, has been living in exile in Guinea-Bissau since March 2023. He was absent and represented by his lawyer in court where civil society representatives and journalists attended Tuesday's opening.

But three of his former senior military officers, Eugene Barret Ngaikosset, Vianney Semndiro and Firmin Junior Danboy, who had been in pre-trial detention in the Central African Republic, were seated on the defendants' bench dressed in orange overalls. The case is being heard by the Special Criminal Court (SCC), a hybrid jurisdiction located in the capital Bangui with Centrafrican and foreign judges.

In February 2024, the SCC issued an international arrest warrant for the former president as part of an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed by Bozize's presidential guard in a civilian prison and a military training centre in the central town of Bossembele.

The judges concluded that there was "serious and consistent evidence against (Bozize), likely to incur his criminal liability, in his capacity as hierarchical superior and military leader". The SCC is in charge of investigating war crimes committed since 2003 in the Central African Republic, which has endured a succession of civil wars and authoritarian rulers since independence from France in 1960.

Bozize's 2013 overthrow by a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels, the Seleka, triggered civil war in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world. Bozize set up militias dominated by Christians and animists, known as anti-Balakas, to regain power. Thousands of civilians were killed and both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United Nations.

At the end of 2020, Bozize took over a new rebel alliance, the Coalition of Patriots for Change, which threatened the rule of President Faustin-Archange Touadera before Russia deployed hundreds of paramilitaries from the Wagner private mercenary company, enabling the government to push them back.

Bozize then went into exile, first in neighbouring Chad and later in Guinea-Bissau. The former president was sentenced in absentia in September 2022 by a Centrafrican court to forced labour for life for conspiracy, rebellion and murder.

Bozize trial for war crimes begins in Bangui

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