sudan’s REGional RElations 261these have come to include the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),
which has migrated north west from Uganda and Sudan’s border with
the DRC.
Under President Ange-Félix Patassé (1993–2003) the CAR regime was
on good terms with Libya (which had saved him several times from
rebellions by his own army), and with Chad and the Sudan. But when
Idriss Déby was forced to switch his support to the Darfur rebels he fell
out with Patassé and backed a coup by General François Bozize, who
chased Patassé out of the CAR and reversed alliances, becoming a friend
of N’Djamena and an enemy of Khartoum and Tripoli.
President Bozize, as an ally of Déby, was considered an enemy by
Khartoum, who started to push rebel forces against him, turning the
CAR into a secondary theatre of operations in the Chad–Sudan conflict.
Bozize convened a large meeting of all opposition forces in Bangui in
December 2008, during which Patassé agreed to abandon his opposi-
tion and recognize Bozize as president. The largest and only organized
rebel group in the CAR (others are mostly loose bands of armed men),
the Armée Populaire pour la Restauration de la Démocratie (APRD)
led by lawyer Jean-Jacques Demafouth, also agreed to enter a process
of coalition, which was geared towards preparing general elections.
This significantly reduced Khartoum’s capacity to continue interfering
in Central African affairs. But it did not stop the banditry that had
developed along the Sudanese border and that still remains an obstacle
to normal life in north-eastern CAR. Meanwhile the LRA, a preda-
tory migrant group (its members were initially Ugandan but today
have between six and eight different nationalities among their ranks),
continues to operate in the east of the country, probably with support
from Khartoum.The Democratic Republic of the CongoAs with the CAR, geography and history have combined to restrict
relations between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the CongoThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors (DRC) to a minimum. Where relations have developed, they have mostly
(www.riftvalley.net).