The Sudan Handbook

sudan’s REGional RElations 261

these 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 Congo

As with the CAR, geography and history have combined to restrict

relations between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The 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).