REPORT: Lebanese expats in the midst of CAR violence

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Central African Republic President Francois Bozize on Thursday urged the United States and former colonial master France to help push back rebel forces who have advanced towards the capital Bangui.

"We are asking our cousins the French and the United States, which are major powers, to help us push back the rebels to their initial positions in a way that will permit talks in Libreville to resolve this crisis," Bozize told a crowd at a main square in Bangui.

In this context, almost 300 Lebanese nationals are living in danger due to the rebellious movements led by the Silika coalition against the government.

Jamal al-Saheli, a Lebanese expatriate said that various measures are being taken in order to keep the Lebanese away from the clashes and added that Lebanese nationals in the capital Bangui are working to find a plane to transport women and children to Cameroon and then to Lebanon.

On the other hand, France maintains a presence in the Central African Republic to protect its interests and French citizens, not the government of President Francois Bozize, French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday.

"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," Hollande said.

"Those days are over," Hollande added, speaking on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris.

Earlier, a government minister in the Central African Republic on Wednesday called for French soldiers stationed there to intervene as rebels closed in on the capital having passed the last major town to the north.

The appeal for help came as hundreds of people protested outside the French Embassy in Bangui, the capital, throwing stones at the building and tearing down the French flag in anger at a rebel advance through the north of the country.

REUTERS/LBCI

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