Former Chad rebel leader arrested in C.Africa

Soldiers with the UN's MINUSCA mission ride on a vehicle on September 15, 2014 in Bangui. By Pacome Pabandji (AFP/File)

Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic said Wednesday it had arrested a former Chadian rebel leader who has long been a thorn in the side of both Chad and its war-ravaged southern neighbour.

Abdel Kader Baba Ladde, leader of Chad's Popular Front for Recovery (FPR), carved out a fiefdom in northern CAR after being pushed out of Chad in 2008 following a failed rebellion.

He was arrested in the district of Kabo, close to the Chadian border, the UN's MINUSCA mission spokeswoman Myriam Dessables told reporters in CAR's capital Bangui.

"Baba Ladde was leading a group of around 40 heavily armed men and was trying to pass himself off as a former Seleka officer," an international military source told AFP, referring to CAR's former mostly Muslim Seleka rebels whose leaders agreed a ceasefire with rival Christian militia in July after months of bloody sectarian warfare.

MINUSCA said in a statement that Baba Ladde was arrested on a warrant issued by a criminal court in Bangui in May.

It did not say of what crimes he was accused. The FPR had been accused of attacking civilians in northern CAR between 2008 and 2012. Baba Ladde had countered that his movement was protecting the Peul community.

In 2012, the CAR and Chadian armies joined forces to try to flush the rebels out of northern CAR. Baba Ladde fled the offensive.

At UN-brokered talks in 2012 he agreed to lay down his arms and return to Chad.

He was subsequently rehabilitated by Chad's President Idriss Deby, who made him an administrator of the southern Grande Sido region.

But the former insurgent leader soon fell out again with authorities in N'Djamena. After being stripped of his prefect's title in November, he fled back across the border to CAR.