Editing Central African Armed Forces (section)

===Role of military in domestic politics===
The military has played an important role in the history of [[Central African Republic]]. The immediate former president, General [[François Bozizé]] was a former army chief-of-staff and his government included several high-level military officers. Among the country's five presidents since independence in 1960, three have been former army chiefs-of-staff, who have taken power through [[coups d'état]]. No president with a military background has, however, ever been succeeded by a new military president.

The country's first president, [[David Dacko]] was [[Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état|overthrown]] by his army chief-of-staff, [[Jean-Bédel Bokassa]] in 1966. Following the [[Operation Caban|ousting]] of Bokassa in 1979, David Dacko was restored to power, only to be [[1981 Central African Republic coup d'état|overthrown once again]] in 1981 by his new army chief of staff, General [[André Kolingba]].

In 1993, [[Ange-Félix Patassé]] became the Central African Republic's first elected president. He soon became unpopular within the army, resulting in violent mutinies in 1996–1997. In May 2001, there was an [[2001 Central African Republic coup d'état attempt|unsuccessful coup attempt]] by Kolingba and once again Patassé had to turn to friends abroad for support, this time [[History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi|Libya]] and [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DR Congo]]. Some months later, at the end of October, Patassé sacked his army chief-of-staff, François Bozizé, and attempted to arrest him. Bozizé then fled to [[Chad]] and gathered a group of rebels. In 2002, he seized [[Bangui]] for a short period, and in March 2003 took power in a [[2003 Central African Republic coup d'état|coup d'état]].<ref name="one">{{cite web|url=http://www.franceevasion.com/toutsavoir/pays-republique-centrafricaine.htm|title=– Histoire: République centrafricaine|work=franceevasion.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625065519/http://www.franceevasion.com/toutsavoir/pays-republique-centrafricaine.htm|archive-date=2007-06-25}}</ref>