The spokesman for Central African Republic’s transitional government immediately denounced the rebels’ declaration, Reuters reported.
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The impoverished nation has descended into chaos since mainly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew President Francois Bozize in early 2013, provoking reprisal attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias.
Voters in the Central African Republic’s northern town of Kaga-Bandoro have made it to the polls for a constitutional referendum after threats of violence by militias prevented their participation on Sunday.
Cmdr. Maouloud Moussa, a spokesman for Muslim rebel leader Noureddine Adam, said Tuesday that the new state will be called the Republic of Logone.
The vote is also being seen as a test of whether a much-delayed national election can take place on December 27 as planned. “Then we’ll look at how to move towards independence”. Adam had called for the referendum and elections to be cancelled, and campaigners including Human Rights Watch accused him of using intimidation to block voting in areas under his control.
Adam, the number two of the Seleka who once was a security minister under Michel Djotodia, who stepped down as president in January 2014, returned to auto in October after having spent little under a year overseas in Kenya, Chad and Sudan.
The vote was held Monday in the PK5 neighborhood of the capital, Bangui, where at least two people were killed Sunday.
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Looking ahead, Lombard said only MINUSCA, the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic, had the “real power” to force Adam and the president back to the negotiating table. “But from everything we know at this point, the vote for “yes” won”, he said.
