ALFRED YEKATOM

CFi.004
ALFRED YEKATOM
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee's website: 
20 August 2015
Reason for listing: 

Alfred Yekatom was listed on 20 August 2015 pursuant to paragraph 11of resolution 2196 (2015) as “engaging in or providing support for acts that undermine the peace, stability or security of the CAR, including acts that threaten or violate transitional agreements, or that threaten or impede the political transition process, including a transition toward free and fair democratic elections, or that fuel violence.”

Additional information: 

Alfred Yekatom, also known as Colonel Rombhot, is a militia leader of a faction of the anti-Balaka movement, known as the “anti-Balaka from the South”. He has held the rank of Chief Corporal in the Forces Armées Centrafricaines (FACA – Central African Republic armed forces).

Yekatom has engaged in and provided support for acts that undermine the peace, stability and security of the Central African Republic, including acts that threaten transitional agreements, and that threaten the political transition process. Yekatom has controlled and commanded a large group of armed militiamen with presence in the neighbourhood of PK9 in Bangui, and in the towns of Bimbo (Ombella-Mpoko province), Cekia, Pissa, and Mbaïki (capital of the Lobaye province), and had established his head-quarters in a forestry concession in Batalimo.

Yekatom has been in direct control of a dozen checkpoints manned by an average of ten armed militia men wearing army uniforms and carrying weapons, including military assault rifles, from the main bridge between Bimbo and Bangui to Mbaïki (Lobaye province), and from Pissa to Batalimo (next to the border with the Republic of Congo), collecting unauthorized taxes from private vehicles and motorcycles, passenger vans and trucks exporting forestry resources to Cameroon and Chad, but also from boats navigating on the Oubangui river. Yekatom has been observed personally collecting part of these unauthorized taxes. Yekatom and his militia have also reportedly killed civilians.