Central African president, PM to hold talks amid tensions

The Central African Republic's interim president and prime minister were to hold talks Wednesday in a bid to end a political rift, as several European countries offered to help quell deadly sectarian violence in the country. Tensions have spiked between rebel-leader-turned-president Michel Djotodia and Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye after three ministers were unexpectedly fired by presidential decree at the weekend. Djotodia, whose Seleka rebel coalition seized power in a March coup, and Tiangaye were set to hold a "reconciliation meeting" in the presence of African mediators in the capital Bangui later Wednesday, a government source told Agence France Presse. Tiangaye, a former opposition member who was kept on as premier after the ouster of president Francois Bozize, has fled his looted home in Bangui and is now living at a base by the airport under the protection of an African-led force. Meanwhile, army officials said the situation on the ground was calmer after days of bloodshed earlier this month. "The tension has eased considerably," said General Francisco Soriano, who heads the French troops in the impoverished country. "It's been rather calm in Bangui since Friday," he said. "Is it sustainable? I don't know." The Central African Republic spiraled into chaos after Djotodia's mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew Bozize in March. The Seleka was disbanded after the coup, but many rebels went rogue, terrorizing civilians with massacres, rapes and lootings. In response, locals formed Christian vigilante groups, leading to an explosion of sectarian violence. Around 600 people have been killed in less than two weeks, according to the United Nations, while some 210,000 people have been forced from their homes in the capital alone. Some badly affected cities, like Bossangoa in the northwest, have become little more than ghost towns, with terrified residents huddling in Christian and Muslim camps, separated by a strip of no man's land that only aid workers dare to cross. France has deployed 1,600 troops under a U.N. mandate to help a struggling African peacekeeping force restore security in its chaotic former colony. The African Union plans to nearly double the number of its so-called MISCA troops in the Central African Republic to 6,000, but France has urged other countries to pitch in as well. On Wednesday, France's European Affairs Minister Thierry Repentin said Germany and Britain were providing "logistical support" with transport planes, while Belgium was considering sending around 150 troops for a "protection mission." The Spanish government has backed plans to send a Hercules military transport aircraft with a "maintenance and support unit" of up to 60 personnel. And the United States has contributed by airlifting some 850 Burundian troops into the country. French troops in the country have so far focused on disarming warring militias. More than 7,000 ex-Seleka fighters have been disarmed over the past 10 days in Bangui alone and are mostly staying in their barracks, a senior MISCA officer told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity Wednesday. "We seem to be returning to a more normal situation," he said. The Central African crisis is set to top the agenda at a European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, with French President Francois Hollande expected to speak about the situation on the ground.