New president takes reins of strife-torn Central Africa

Bangui: Central African Republic`s new interim president Catherine Samba Panza was sworn in Thursday, tasked with ending horrific sectarian violence and tackling a massive humanitarian crisis.

The World Bank has pledged to raise $100 million (73 million euro) to help kickstart the paralysed state, one of many daunting challenges facing the country`s first female president. Samba Panza, 59, takes over from Michel Djotodia who resigned under international pressure after failing to rein in the mainly Muslim rebel Seleka group, which brought him to power in March 2013. Months of atrocities by the Seleka prompted Christians to form self-defence militias known as the anti-balaka (anti-machete), stoking a revenge cycle of religious hatred and bloodshed that has claimed thousands of lives. The United Nations has warned of a potential genocide. Samba Panza was sworn in by the interim constitutional court in a ceremony attended by Gabon`s President Omar Bongo Ondimba and Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister of former colonial power France. She vowed to "work only in the national interest" and not for personal gain. She also appealed to the ex-Seleka rebels and the Christian vigilantes "to take a patriotic stand and give up their weapons." She is expected to appoint a prime minister as soon as Friday in the hope of forming a government early next week to begin tackling the nation`s vast challenges. "I am very proud of my mother, she is very brave, very honest," the new president`s daughter Olga said. Samba Panza also held a meeting with Fabius shortly before the ceremony in which she thanked him for France`s intervention in December under a UN mandate. From Paris French President Francois Hollande said the CAR`s new leader represented "hope that reconciliation will be possible, that security will be reestablished and that the people will be saved from the scourge of hunger... (and) violence." On Thursday French and African peacekeeping troops patrolled the capital Bangui, a day after fresh violence between the Christian and Muslim fighters claimed 10 lives. About 400,000 people or half of Bangui`s population are still displaced. About a quarter of them live in a sprawling refugee camp near the airport and the bases of the foreign troops, too afraid to go back to their homes.State coffers are empty and the administration has virtually ground to a halt, meaning Samba Panza`s government will be totally reliant on promised foreign aid. Relief agencies report that half of the population of 4.6 million people is in dire need of food and medical care. The World Bank said it would provide funding to help restore key government services and provide food, healthcare and other crucial supplies. "The people of the Central African Republic are facing one of their most profound tragedies in recent memory, which requires urgent support from the international community," said Makhtar Diop, the Bank`s vice president for Africa. "We are moving quickly to mobilise US$100 million to help reestablish key government services and get people the life-saving supplies they need to survive this ordeal and resume their lives." Samba Panza said Thursday in an interview with the French daily Le Parisien her priorities would be "a return of security" and "putting people to work" as quickly as possible. "We have thousands of armed youths, both with the Seleka and the anti-balaka. If we release them onto the street, we will not have solved the problem," she said in the interview. She also warned that foreign troop numbers were "not sufficient to regain order in Bangui". The African Union plans in coming days to boost its force, MISCA, to about 5,200 men, with a longer-term goal of deploying 6,000 soldiers on the ground. The European Union has for its part pledged to send 500 troops to Bangui. Adama Dieng, the UN adviser on the prevention of genocide, has also warned that the size of the MISCA force meant it would not be able to cope with the crisis. The international community on Monday pledged to give the CAR $496 million dollars (365 million euros) in aid for 2014, after largely overlooking a country where chronic instability and corruption have prevented the exploitation of its own resources. In the longer term, Samba Panza is due to oversee a political transition that will lead to general elections in February 2015, when she will be banned from standing again for office.