Chadian rebel leader arrested by UN peacekeepers in CAR

A Chadian rebel leader has been arrested by the United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The spokeswoman for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Myriam Dessables, said on Wednesday that Abdel Kader Baba Ladde was detained in the district of Kabo, near the CAR’s border with neighboring Chad.

Baba Ladde was reportedly accompanied by a group of 40 heavily armed men at the time of the arrest.

Baba Ladde, who leads Chad’s Popular Front for Recovery, left his homeland in 2008 after a failed coup. He then moved to the CAR and established a fiefdom in the northern part of the country.

In May, a criminal court in the CAR’s capital city of Bangui accused him of launching attacks against residents in the northern CAR between 2008 and 2012, and issued an arrest warrant for the Chadian rebel leader.

The governments of Chad and the Central African Republic launched a joint offensive in 2012 in a bid to force the rebel forces out of the northern CAR. Baba Ladde managed to survive the offensive.

He later laid down arms and returned to Chad to cooperate with the government as the administrator of the southern Grande Sido region. He again came into conflict with the Chadian government and crossed the border to the CAR to lead his anti-government operations.