Maxime Mokom: the Central African tried at the International Criminal Court

The Central African Republic (CAR) descended into conflict in 2013 when Seleka rebels ousted then-president François Bozizé.

These rebels claimed to be defending the merits of the grievances that communities in the northeast of the country had been making for years, namely an aspiration for development and inclusion in the national political system.

In the months following the coup, self-defense groups formed, some with links to deposed President Bozizé, claiming to want to defend “true Central Africans”.

During my field research trip in 2017, I conducted interviews with several anti-balaka leaders and fighters in Bangui and Yaloké. I wanted to understand their motivations as well as their use of the theme of “real Central Africans”.

I discovered that this expression was commonly used in rural and urban areas, and among elites and ordinary people. Anyone who did not fit this description was considered a "foreigner", a word used to target Muslims and other ethnicities.

Maxime Mokom was one of the anti-balaka leaders I was able to meet. In mid-March 2022, he was arrested in Chad and transferred to the International Criminal Court. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 2013 and 2014.

I lived not far from his house, in a neighborhood where he was well known to everyone; he was then married and had children. We met a few times to discuss the anti-balaka movement, its actions and its views on politics. Mokom then held an important position in the CAR; he was also notoriously known as the nephew of former President Bozizé.

But who is he really? The answer to this question and the reflection on the context of the movement that he ended up coordinating, will make it possible to clarify the object of his trial scheduled for the coming months.

The political context

First, the political context.

After losing power in 2014, the Seleka split into several armed groups with varying military capabilities.

The anti-balaka regrouped around leaders like Patrice Nagaïssona and Mokom, but also others like Alfred Yekatom.

Between 2014 and 2016, anti-balaka fighters fought against Seleka groups for control of roads and villages in Nana-Grebizi province. The anti-balaka also sought to retaliate against the Seleka and Central African Muslims. Civilians were caught in the crossfire. Over time, anti-balaka fighters attacked everyone they encountered: many were killed and raped. Mokom was one of their leaders.

Yekatom was arrested in October 2018 in CAR and is currently appearing before the ICC. He faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity from 2013 to 2014.

Ngaïssona was arrested in December 2018 in France. He too is on trial at the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mokom's arrest is the most recent. News of his arrest came as a surprise because the warrant was kept secret and because of parallel negotiations with armed groups that are still ongoing under Angolan auspices. The question is whether this arrest will complicate a stalled peace process.

But his arrest is added to the list of important coordinators who will have to face justice. Given the long period of impunity in the CAR, the fact that several armed group leaders are on trial is a positive development. This is a strong signal that justice could be served.

Over the past two years, the current President Faustin Archange Touadéra has positioned himself as a promoter of peace by constantly sending messages in this direction. The fact that these armed group leaders are on trial certainly works in his favor in that he can claim that he is against impunity with supporting evidence.

At the same time, it has reinforced, by various means, its military positioning as a solution to the conflict. He has, for example, sought the participation of Russian private military companies, as well as Rwandan battalions. He also supports former rebels whom he deems useful.

The conflict that erupted in 2013 has continued to evolve in many ways even as the government and its supporters have gained the upper hand. In general, armed groups are under enormous pressure, but they are not completely defeated.

The rise and fall of Mokom

The term “anti-balaka” has two common meanings: anti-balaka and anti-bullet-AK (47). Balaka means machete in Sango. The fighters therefore claim to be able to withstand a machete blow. At the same time, it can mean "anti-Ball-AK-47", meaning that the latter are also able to resist the bullets that the Seleka fighters use: they are armored.

Mokom was a former security agent of the Bozizé regime and, at the time of our meeting, he carried out pastoral activities. He had had a church built within the walls of his house which his faithful attended.

During our interviews, Mokom hastened to affirm that he was not a direct nephew of Bozizé. This is an assertion that I have not been able to verify.

He said he joined the anti-balaka because the state was absent. According to him, the official army (the Central African Armed Forces-FACA) disintegrated when the Seleka rebels took power in 2013; he had then sought refuge in a neighboring country.

There are, in fact, reports of several human rights violations when they took power and attesting that the population lived in fear.

From there, he began to organize the resistance with a few groups of friends, which marked the beginning of his commitment as an armed group leader.

In 2017, when we met, Mokom was still considered one of the hardliners of the anti-balaka movement. He was as virulent as ever, asking the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) to “drive out foreign mercenaries” from the country.

According to him, the UN had failed to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians and armed groups continued to decimate the population.

Mokom was still supported by other anti-balaka fighters I had met on the outskirts of Bangui. According to their reasoning, unlike other factions of the anti-balaka, Mokom had not tried to turn them into a political party.

Early on, Ngaïssona had tried to turn his anti-balaka faction into a political party, just as another lesser-known leader, Sébastien Wénézoui, tried to turn his faction into a political party.

At the time, these leaders were preparing for the elections and trying to take advantage of their role in the anti-balaka movement. Mokom did not, however, seek electoral votes. For his supporters, it was proof that he was committed to the cause of the anti-balaka, namely to defend the Central Africans rather than trying to exploit their grievances, as other members of the elite.

In 2019, after the signing of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic (APPR-RCA), the current peace agreement signed between the government and the armed groups, Mokom joined the government of Touadera as as Minister in charge of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration. However, relations were strained between the two men.

In December 2020, Mokom had joined the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) led by Bozizé, in order to oust Touadéra from power. This coalition's attempt to seize power was unsuccessful.

The following of the events

Apart from his work as a security guard, Mokom became the reflection of a particular vision of Central African society, a vision that could exclude other fellow citizens on the pretext that they were not “real Central Africans”. Behind this was the search for an unattainable purity.

As some Central Africans would say, the anti-balaka are a movement. Many young people have joined the anti-balaka for several reasons, such as protecting their neighborhoods from an army that has abandoned them and in the absence of security institutions to protect civilians. The theme of the “true Central African” united them.

This highlights the fact that the anti-balaka vigilante groups are not limited to the leaders tried by the ICC, and the fact that the anti-balaka were a large movement will be part of what is at stake in this trial.

Gino Vlavonou is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. I currently work for the Social Science Research Council, based in Brooklyn, NY. It is different from the Canadian agency that funded me.

By Gino Vlavonou, Peace and Securty Specialist, L'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa