Military 'President' Rules over Vast Chunk of C. Africa
Small and wiry with a Bin Laden-style beard, General Mahamat Al Khatim is absolute master of a vast region in northern Central African Republic, far from the reach of the capital Bangui.
Al Khatim, whose public appearances are a show of power and wealth in one of Africa's poorest and most battered nations, is one of the warlords who emerged from the Seleka ("Alliance") of mainly Muslim rebels that toppled president Francois Bozize in 2013.
Known as "the president" across territory south of the border with Chad, the general's trips through Kabo, his dusty "capital," are spectacular. Nobody would dare not to turn out and applaud, despite being regularly robbed by his men.
Preceded by about 100 motorbikes with at least three precarious riders apiece, some of them armed, the strongman drives past in the back seat of a flashy new 4x4, deigning occasionally to wave to his subjects.
"Sometimes he goes by with no greeting... If you are caught ignoring the cortege, the ex-Seleka will slap a fine on you. It can vary from 100,000 to 200,000 CFA francs (about 150 to 300 euros / $163 to $326)," Kabo resident Jeremie Ndomlane told AFP in Bangui by telephone.
When "the president" salutes the national colors, the citizens of Kabo stand still for more than 600 meters (yards) all around. "Woe to those who pretend to take no notice," said Gaston Mbainadje, a trucker. "The fine can rise to 500,000 CFA francs)."
Another resident, Martin Oualata, explains that in front and behind Al Khatim's vehicle, "roll at least 10 pick-up trucks fitted with heavy machine-guns and carrying men in military uniform with new red berets" and AK-47 assault rifles.
The drive-by winds up with "Muslim women in vehicles, always new ones, waving handkerchiefs and scarves, ululating to end the procession," he adds.
Al Khatim lives in a luxury villa fenced off with barbed wire near the entrance to Sido on the northern border with Chad.
The location is ideal to watch over all traffic coming or going from Kabo and the town of Batangafo further south. Motorists, passengers and merchandise: nothing escapes the attention of the warlord's men.
His armed followers serve as soldiers, police, paramilitary gendarmes and customs officers who exact taxes that go straight into the coffers of "the president".
A former mercenary from Chad, Mahamat Al Khatim was one of the men who brought General Bozize to power in March 2003, in one of the many coups that have swept the country since independence from France in 1960, along with rebellions and army mutinies.
Bozize trusted Al Khatim enough to appoint him military security chief at the presidential palace in the capital Bangui, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The devout Christian head of state and his palace governor from the Muslim minority got along fine until the issue of celebrating the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan arose in 2012.
Al Khatim "tells everyone who will listen how that year... he and his fellows asked Bozize to help them organise the Muslim feast. Bozize gave each of them 10,000 CFA francs, which annoyed them. After that, they took their weapons and bags to go and join the Seleka rebellion," a resident says.
His fighters, members of the Central African Patriotic Movement (MPC), are mostly former cattle farmers of the Fulani ethnic group.
Residents say that the men are ready to disarm. They fear what they call the "space trucks", their name for French Rafale combat aircraft that bombed them near Batangafo last year, killing several of their number.
Meanwhile, the gunmen have forged their own illicit interests, according to a local man who listed racketeering, hold-ups, cattle rustling and the theft of oxen, chicken, goats and motorbikes.
"We're waiting for them to be disarmed to deal with them round a bend in the road," said Isaac, a Kabo youth.
The MPC is one of the branches of the ex-Seleka coalition -- dissolved by the man it placed in power for 10 months, Michel Djotodia -- that have turned tracts of the country into lawless zones, including parts of Bangui under transitional rule.
The mostly Muslim fighters clash with anti-balaka ("anti-machete") vigilantes formed by the Christian majority, yet sometimes make deals with them to disrupt an electoral process from which they are barred.
At Sibut in the center of the country, another former Seleka chief, General Arda Hakouma has just warned that plans by the interim regime to rearm the regular army amount to "a declaration of war."