C. AFRICA PREMIER CALLS FOR TALKS WITH ADVANCING REBELS

Nicolas Tiangaye

Source: MINA

By Abu Dzakir

(WORLD WAR XXX) --- Libreville//Central Africa's prime minister on Saturday called on the rebels who have advanced to within striking distance of the capital to negotiate to avoid a blood bath in the coup-prone country, Modern Ghana reported.

"The prime minister (Nicolas Tiangaye) asks our brothers of the Seleka (rebel coalition) to get in touch with the national unity government to find a peaceful solution and avoid a blood bath," a spokesman for the premier, Me Crepin Mboli Goumba, told AFP.

The call came a day after Seleka rebels pushed their way to the gates of the capital Bangui following the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal in the mineral-rich but impoverished country that has been plagued by instability since its independence from France in 1960.

Troops from the Seleka rebel coalition on Friday shot their way through the key Damara checkpoint some 75 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital, said a source with the Multinational Force of Central Africa (FOMAC), a regional stabilisation mission which was manning the roadblock.

Colonel Djouma Narkoyo (Photo: AFP)

"The rebels stormed the checkpoint and passed through.... There were shots but no wounded," said the source on condition of anonymity. "They are on the road to Bangui. We're on the highest alert."

Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, a rebel chief contacted by AFP by telephone from Libreville, said: "We are at the gates of Bangui.

"I cannot tell you where, it is a military secret as well as our numbers, but Damara is behind us."

A French foreign ministry statement confirmed that the rebels were "only a few kilometres" from Bangui. Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot called for "all parties to show restraint and respect the civilian populations".