A MONTH after starting their campaign, rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) have toppled a string of towns in the north of the country and are now pushing towards the capital, Bangui. Some reports, quoting aid workers and military sources, say that the rebel alliance is less than 50 miles from the capital. The rebels have given guarantees that they will not, for now, enter Bangui. Yet residents are stockpiling provisions and some are leaving. The United Nations have evacuated staff and the United States have told its citizens to leave. The CAR has appealed to France for military assistance. A demonstration outside the French embassy (pictured) turned violent as protestors broke windows and tore down the French flag, accusing the former colonial power of abandoning the CAR. The rebels are threatening to overthrow President François Bozizé’s government, which they say breached a deal that offered financial help to those of them who put down their weapons. The group also demanded that the government free rebels it has imprisoned. The rebel alliance known as Seleka was formed in August by breakaway factions from three groups that signed a peace agreement in 2007: the Union for Democratic Forces for Unity, the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace and the Wa Kodro Salute Patriotic Convention.

Chad last week sent troops to quell the rapid advance of the rebels after President Bozizé had pleaded for help. His call came after the rebel alliance had seized the diamond-mining town of Bria, killing 15 government soldiers on December 25th. The 150 Chadian soldiers are now the only real obstacle to the rebels, who have taken over several towns facing little resistance from CAR’s ill-equipped and poorly organised army.

The government in Bangui has also appealed to France to facilitate dialogue with the rebels. France has around 200 soldiers based in the country but security analysts say Paris has grown reluctant to intervene in former colonies.

The 2007 peace accord called for an immediate ceasefire and for rebel groups to lay down their arms. In return, the rebels were to be absorbed into the national army and given the right to join the country’s government. Yet the recent developments “gravely undermine the peace agreements in place and the efforts of the international community to consolidate peace in the Central African Republic,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week in a statement.

Africa’s poorest country has been rocked by rebel conflicts, coups and destabilisation since the fall of dictator Jean-Bédel Bokassa in 1979. President Bozizé seized power in a coup in 2003. He has since relied on foreign intervention to fend off ethnic tensions, mutinies, banditry and spill-overs from conflicts in neighbouring Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2008 and 2009 the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army crossed into the troubled country. Earlier this year the Africa Union deployed a military force to hunt down the LRA’s founder, Joseph Kony, who is believed to be in the CAR.

The instability of the land-locked CAR has stifled the country’s progress. It remains the continent’s poorest nation despite its wealth of timber, gold, uranium and diamond deposits. The country’s 4.5m inhabitants are scattered across an area the size of France and survive on subsistence farming. Earlier this month Mercer, a consultancy, ranked the capital Bangui the world’s second-worst place to live. Nearly every other adult dies before he or she reaches the age of 60.

Many of the capital’s residents believe it is only a matter of time before the city is taken over by the rebels, as pleas for help are likely to fall on deaf ears.