TRIP REPORT FROM VISIT TO NDELE, SOKOUMBA AND NGARBA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BANGUI 000046

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/C SSARDAR, MASHARF, SLOPEZ, KWYCOFF
PARIS FOR RKANEDA
LONDON FOR PLORD
AFRICOM FOR KOCH

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PINR CT
SUBJECT: TRIP REPORT FROM VISIT TO NDELE, SOKOUMBA AND NGARBA

1.(SBU) SUMMARY: Ambassador and Management Officer traveled to
Ndele and Ngarba, Central African Republic (CAR) from 12-15
February, 2009 to:

-- Investigate reports of the arrival of a new armed or rebel
group in Ndele and the relationship of this group to reports of
increasing ethnic conflict between the Goula and Rounga tribes.

-- Confirm reports of thousands of Central Africans fleeing as
refugees to Chad.

-- Investigate reports that the Central African Armed Forces
(FACA) were burning villages north of Ndele on the road to the
border town of Ngarba (aka NGarba-Bord).

After meetings with many different parties in the region as well
as visits to every village between Ndele and the Chadian border,
AmEmbassy Bangui can confirm:

-- There is dangerous conflict between the Goula and Rounga
tribes, but this conflict may be being used as a cover by a new
rebel group, something even more dangerous.

-- While the numbers of Central African Refugees initially
reported to be in Chad are exaggerated, the final number could
well reach 10,000.

-- The FACA are not burning or looting villages, but have
probably massacred approximately twenty villagers in one
location and have probably beaten and killed at least two others.

2.(SBU) All of these events risk having tremendous negative
impact on the nascent peace process in the Central African
Republic. The Ambassador discussed his trip with President
Bozize. END SUMMARY

3.(SBU) On Friday, 12 February, 2009, Ambassador, Management
Officer, Local Investigator and two drivers departed Bangui in
two USG vehicles for Ndele. They were accompanied by the U.S.
citizen director of the Non-governmental Organization
International Medical Corp. (STRICTLY PROTECT) Upon arrival in
Ndele, the group met with members of the delegation sent by the
Sultan (also the Mayor) of Ndele to negotiate with the rebels.
The members of the delegation were representatives of various
Christian and Muslim churches and mosques in Ndele. They
reported that the FACA prevented them from taking the road from
Ndele towards Ngarba, the town on the Chadian border. They had
thus bypassed the FACA and circled around in the bush. They
reported thousands of people in hiding for fear of the FACA
after it had massacred some twenty people, including the Chief
(Chef du Village),at the village of Sokoumba. Allegedly, the
FACA arrived during the funeral of a child, ordered the men to
strip off their clothes, and then shot them. They reported that
they were told by the people in the bush that the bodies were
buried in a common grave, but that they themselves had not been
able to reach the village or find the grave. They showed
digital photos of the makeshift camps in the bush and dirty
water in the shallow wells that people were digging.

4.(SBU) The next morning, Ambassador called on the Sultan,
Senoussi KAMOUN. The Sultan is a well established political
figure, his family having been in the area for generations. He
is also the mayor of Ndele and thus, in principle, represents
the Bangui government. (See 08 Bangui 172) According to the
Sultan, the "rebels" are breakaways from the UFDR who arrived
from Bria and that none are from Ndele. He believed that the
focus of the problem was in Bangui, not Ndele as he identified
the leaders of the rebels as being former members of the
Presidential Guard. Most of the rank and file were said to be
ex-UFDR who broke away after the signing of the peace accords
with the CARG and are mostly Chadians or Sudanese. He mentioned
that some are Saras from Chad who have been living in Rounga
villages in the CAR.

5.(SBU) While calling this a "Bangui Problem," the Sultan
repeatedly stressed the danger that arises from these rebels

BANGUI 00000046 002 OF 004


operating against the backdrop of longer term conflict between
the Goula and Rounga tribes and quickly recounted the alliances
and conflicts between the two groups, going back at least a
decade. Points of unity and conflict include cattle raids
against and from the Sudanese (the two tribes had not always
come to each other's defense),diamond mining rights (Goula
driving the Rounga off the diamond fields),and various
individual killings and compensations. (This may relate to
distribution of payments by the CARG to the UFDR to end the
rebellion.)

6.(SBU) The Sultan claimed to have been negotiating with rebels
with some success but stressed that military actions by the FACA
would be counter productive as they would only hurt the civilian
population and cause them to flee. He stressed the conflict
could not be resolved at the level of the Minister of the
Interior and urged the Ambassador to solicit direct engagement
by President Bozize. The Sultan said that the conflict must be
resolved quickly; using the mediation of the traditional
sheikhs, or it risked spreading across the entire Vakaga. The
Ambassador promised to share his observations and message with
President Bozize.

7.(SBU) Following the meeting with the Sultan, the Ambassador
met with the commander of the FACA in Ndele, Commander NGREPPE.
Also present was Lt. TOUNDAM of the Presidential Guard. The
Commander reported that he had been in the area for about four
months and that the present problems had begun in Bria. He said
that his troops had clashed with the rebels along the road from
Ngarba to Ndele and that he had suffered three fatalities and
several wounded. The rebels are well armed with AK-47 assault
rifles and rocket propelled grenades (RPG),as well as the usual
homemade weapons. He could not estimate a number, but said that
most were Chadians or Sudanese and not Central Africans. He
noted that the ranks swelled with recruits during the course of
their trip from Bria; some of these being forced recruits who
are used as porters. After his losses, his troops returned to
Ndele, reorganized and counter attacked. He said that it was
following this attack that the population fled. Ambassador told
the Commander that he was about to take the road to Ngarba.

8.(SBU) Like the Sultan, the Commander stressed that the rebels
were led by some ten or more former members of the Presidential
Guard and that this was a "veiled rebellion" hidden by behind
ethnic conflict. He further noted that the rebels had at least
five Thuraya satellite telephone numbers. He implied that the
Sultan was not negotiating in good faith and was struck that the
rebels swore in the name of Allah. Thus, for him, there was an
Islamic element to the rebellion.

9.(SBU) Ambassador took the opportunity to stress the need to
protect the civilian population and to warn that any outrages
against civilians, besides being a violation of human rights,
would simply strengthen his enemy. The Commander responded
enthusiastically, saying that this was just what he had always
said.

10.(SBU) Ambassador and party then departed up the road to
Ngarba. During the first twenty kilometers, the party passed
normal, occupied villages. After that, the villages were
deserted save for a few unhappy farm and domestic animals. The
houses were all locked. Pausing to explore one village, we
encountered two wary young men, armed with a spear and a
machete. They said that, following the killings at Sokoumba,
the population had fled into the bush in fear. They were
guarding the village against possible looters. Party continued,
village by village, until Sokoumba.

11.(SBU) In Sokoumba, the party found what appeared to be a
small number of bloodied clothes, coagulated blood in the sand
in drag marks, as well as about fifty shell casings (AK 47 and a
larger cartridge of the same caliber) in a small area. There
were no indications of combat; only one possible bullet impact
on a wall, no buildings damaged, destroyed, or burned.
Following the drag marks behind the house, the party found an
unusual mound of earth; some two/three meters wide and four/five

BANGUI 00000046 003 OF 004


meters long, roughly in the shape of a figure of eight; or two
adjacent holes. The mound was surrounded by a double row of
bricks, pried from a ruined building, and the mound was topped
by two woven mats of the type used as rugs or walls. A very
small number of shell casings and bloody clothes were found
elsewhere in the village. There were no inhabitants other than
animals and, as before, everything else appeared completely
normal. Large quantities of straw and bricks had been collected
in preparation for dry season repair of houses. The only thing
unusual was the absence of the people.

12.(SBU) Party continued to village of Akoursoubak, where they
discovered the straw buildings composing the Eaux et Foret
(Water and Forest) guard post at the southern entrance of the
village completely burned. The village was deserted and there
were no overt signs of the battle between the rebels and the
FACA which reportedly took place in early January. There were
no empty shell casings or bullet holes in buildings, nor did any
building show blast damage. In the center of the village
approximately 10 buildings were burned, leaving only their
charred brick frames. Found amongst the ruins were burned
Islamic and Catholic papers as well as a burned French grammar
book. After about 10 minutes a couple of villagers emerged from
the bush and said that everyone, fearing their safety, had fled
to the town of Ngarba on the Chadian border.

13.(SBU) The group continued up the road 40 kilometers to
Ngarba, passing many similarly deserted villages. On they way,
they passed a handfuls of fleeing people carrying their
belongings on foot or bicycle. When the party arrived in
Ngarba, they were surprised to find it completely deserted.
Continuing through the small town, past the abandoned police and
government offices, they reached the river that forms the border
with Chad. People on the bank reported that everyone, including
all CARG government officials, had fled across the border into
Chad and were housed in a refugee camp three kilometers north of
the border. The border was undefended, not patrolled and not
delineated. There were a few people down by the river helping
refugees across by pirogue [local wooden boats] or on foot. A
UN vehicle from the High Commission for refugees (UNHCR) was on
the Chadian side. Members of that organization came across to
the CAR by pirogue and said that they had registered over 5,000
refugees, mostly women and children. The UNHCR in Chad
subsequently confirmed that refugees continued to arrive at a
rate of approximately 150 per day. From NGO reports of
immunization campaigns, we believe that as many as another 5,000
may be hiding in the surrounding country and making their way to
the border.

14.(SBU) That evening the party met with a group of Ngarba
residents who came over to sell food and discuss the situation.
All expressed great fear of the FACA following the Sokoumba
killings, especially as their Chef de Village was the first to
be killed. They reported that the Imam of Akoursoubak had been
killed by the FACA, along his assistant. They further reported
that mosque was one of the buildings burned. The villagers
alleged that the FACA arrived with lists of suspects and began
beating people in an attempt to gain information. People were
very angry and contrasted the behavior of the FACA with the
allegedly better behavior of the Chadian armed forces. The
following morning the party departed for Ndele. Upon reentering
Ndele, there was a follow up meeting with the Sultan as well as
a meeting with the Sous-Prefect for the region. The
Sous-Prefect said that people on the western road out of Ndele
were fleeing as well, but in smaller numbers. He also noted
that the people in the bush had no potable water. He went on to
say that food prices in Ndele were rising as with the
neighboring villages empty, there was not enough food arriving.
He said that he, "feared hunger in Ndele." Ambassador and Party
returned to Bangui on Sunday, 15 February.

15.(SBU) On Tuesday, 17 February, Ambassador discussed his trip
and observations with UN Secretary General's Special
Representative, Francois Fall, and French Ambassador Jean-Pierre
Vidon. Both were distressed at the latest turn of events and
both expressed the greatest pessimism for the negative impact on

BANGUI 00000046 004 OF 004


the nascent peace process. The French Ambassador found
conditions in Ndele especially worrisome as two major rebel
leaders who had signed the peace accords and participated in the
Political Dialogue, Miskine and Saboun, had just released a
statement in Tripoli in which they threatened to take up arms
again. (COMMENT: A threat which was, in fact, carried out on
Saturday 21 February.) Ambassador Fall reported great
frustration in dealing with the follow-on to the National
Dialogue. The APRD leader Demafouth was seeking to be put in
charge of the disarmament and demobilization of all rebel
groups. This is most unusual as he, himself, is the leader of
one of those groups. No one had any real information on the
prison break at Bosambele, but all agreed that it was a
tremendous blow to the prestige of the Bozize regime that anyone
could conduct a successful attack upon one of the CARG's
strongest garrisons, only about 300 kilometers from Bangui.
Fall and Vidon were both extremely pessimistic about the future
of peace in the CAR and agreed that the Ambassador had to brief
President Bozize on his trip to Ndele, reported SEPTEL.
COOK