The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated Ali Darassa, the leader of the armed group Union for Peace in Central African Republic (UPC) operating mainly in the Southeast provinces of CAR, over “brutal atrocities against civilians”.
The Central African Republic is torn between warring militias who resort to predatory taxation, violence, kidnappings and displacement.
An ex-Seleka faction, UPC has been active since 2014 and is the perpetrator of several massacres, killings and rapes and caused the displacement of thousands of people. The conflict-stricken country is torn between warring armed groups who resort to predatory taxation, kidnappings, violence, and displacement.
Central African Republic Conflict Mapping Report by IPIS Research, released in 2018 said UPC activities have “heightened tensions with local communities who were subjected to numerous exactions, including taxation, arbitrary arrest, physical abuse and other forms of extortion, as well as retaliation killings and forced marriages”.
The Treasury previously designated other armed groups operating in CAR, including the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader Joseph Kony and his sons, LRA leadership as well as anti-Balaka and ex-Seleka leaders.
