The most powerful armed group in the Central African Republic has pledged to leave the rebel coalition which seeks to overthrow the regime of President Faustin Archange Touadéra, in a statement released on Monday and confirmed to AFP by the movement's spokesperson.
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The Unit for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), mainly active in the east of the country where its members control numerous mineral deposits, is the best endowed and most active group in the Central African Republic, where a civil war has been raging for nearly eight years.
"
Army General Ali Darassa Mahamat and his officers are committed to withdrawing from the coalition of patriots for change,
" wrote Ali Darassa, the head of the UPC and author of the statement, claiming that "
from the start from the electoral crisis, the population suffers bitterly from insecurity, the health situation, famine and non-humanitarian assistance
”.