The ICC issues an arrest warrant for the leader of the African-African rebels

The International Criminal Court said Thursday it had issued an arrest warrant for a Central African Republic rebel leader for war crimes and crimes against humanity during civil wars in 2013.

Nourredine Adam, leader of an armed group of former rebels belonging to the mainly Muslim Seleka group, is wanted for crimes allegedly committed when he was security minister at the time, the ICC said in a statement.

He is wanted for crimes including torture, imprisonment, persecution, enforced disappearance and cruel treatment in detention centers run by the then-ruling regime, prosecutors said.

One of the poorest countries in the world, the Central African Republic was plunged into a bloody civil war after a coup in 2013, and although violence has declined over the past three years, armed groups still control large parts of the country.

The warrant was originally issued sealed in January 2019, but ICC judges had now ordered it unsealed, the ICC said.

It identified him as Mahamat Nouradine Adam and said he was also known by a number of aliases including Nourreddine Adam.

The ICC ruled that the arrest warrant “may be transmitted to any State or international organization for the purpose of its execution”.

Adam is now the leader of the Popular Front for the Rebirth of the Central African Republic (FPRC), a former Seleka militia that is now one of the country’s remaining main rebel groups.

His group was one of two who refused to lay down their arms last year in response to a truce offer from CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera.

The 2013 coup ousted President Francois Bozize, who had seized power a decade earlier.

The fighting was between a coalition of armed groups that toppled Bozize, the predominantly Muslim Seleka, and supporting militias, the predominantly Christian Anti-Balaka.

Adam is already subject to UN sanctions, the arrest warrant states.

Two former Central African warlords, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom, who led anti-Balaka militias, are currently on trial before the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The trial of Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, an alleged Seleka commander who is also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, is scheduled to open in September.