Journalists in the Central African Republic on Monday voiced concern after a senior newspaper executive was arrested, reportedly for publishing news about the country's ousted former president.
Freedom of expression has been an issue in the country since the mostly Muslim rebel alliance, the Seleka, overthrew president Francois Bozize in 2013, forcing him into exile after a decade in power.
He is currently the target of an international arrest warrant issued by a UN-sponsored tribunal in the CAR for possible crimes against humanity.
Martial Pabandji, an adviser and representative on CAR's media regulator, said the director of publications at Le Quotidien du Bangui, Landry Ulrich Ngema Ngokepele, had been detained.
"Landry is being prosecuted for announcing Bozize's presence in Bangui... and causing public disorder," he told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Other media organisations called Ngokpele's detention "arbitrary" while the deputy head of the country's journalists' union called it "effectively kidnapping".
"They bypassed procedures. You cannot arrest someone without a warrant or charges," said Jean-Fernand Koena.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities nor from the state prosecutor's office when contacted by AFP.
Some journalists and editors have said they would not take part in this year's press freedom day, which is organised by the government, until their colleague is released.
Bozize mobilised mostly Christian and animist self-defence militias -- the anti-Balakas -- to try to regain power in the impoverished Central African Republic.
Thousands of civilians were killed and both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Fighting peaked in 2016 before losing intensity two years later but violence rumbles on between successor groups of the militias and the government.
President Faustin Archange Touadera brought in fighters from Russia's Wagner mercenary group to help train his armed forces, and in 2020 more Russian operatives followed as rebel groups advanced on the capital.
