Officially, there is a 6-year compulsory schooling. The primary school is 6 years old. The secondary school is divided into two (4 + 3 years). The country has one university in Bangui (established in 1969). According to UNESCO, approx. 50% (2003) of the adult population are illiterate. The public education system suffers from the country’s weak economy. There is great teacher shortage in the country.
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In February 2006, there were reports of fighting between government forces and rebels in the northern part of the country. About 50,000 were sent on the run. Of these, 7,000 went to neighboring Chad. It was also stated that government forces systematically executed men and children who were supposed to cooperate with the rebels.
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An aircraft carrying 50 armed men landed in April 2006 in the north of the country. The government assured that there were support forces from Sudan to the Chad rebels.
In May 2007, the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation into the extensive human rights violations that took place during the 2002-03 clashes. At that time, several thousands became victims of abuse.
In January 2008, Bozizé was met by a general strike among public servants who objected to the non-payment of their salaries. President fired Prime Minister Élie Doté and instead put Faustin-Archange Touadéra in the post. Bozizé himself took over the post of Minister of Defense and inaugurated his son, Francis Bozizé as Minister-Minister. His sister, Yvonne M’Boïssona, Minister of Tourism in the previous government, was appointed Minister of Water, Forests, Hunting, Fisheries and the Environment.
In February 2010, Kolingba died in France. Bozizé attended his funeral in Bangui. That week, the president signed a decree setting the date for the next presidential election to April 25, 2010. The date was postponed to May 16, and postponed indefinitely. Bozizé then asked Parliament to change the constitution so that he could continue to lead the country until elections could be held. Proponents described it as a constitutional coup and did not count on elections for the time being, but in January and March 2011, Bozizé nevertheless made elections, which he won big. Opposition candidates were harassed and barred from traveling abroad. The elections were funded by the EU and UNDP.
Armed conflicts continued around the country through 2010 and 2011, causing about 2/3 of the country to be outside the control of the central government. The northwestern part of the country was de-facto under the control of the People’s Army for the Reconstruction of Democracy (APRD), which had probably signed a peace deal with Bozizé but had not been disarmed. The southeastern part of the country was under the control of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which carried out increasingly brutal attacks. In October 2010, the African Union created a joint force – MICOPAX – made up of soldiers from the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Uganda to fight the LRA. The initiative was supported by the United States, which in October sent 100 military advisers to assist in the fighting.
Through 2012, MICOPAX and the government army continued the fight against the LRA. There were frequent clashes with smaller groups of LRA members, some killed and others taken prisoner. In May, she managed to capture one of the LRA’s higher officers, Caesar Achellam. In September, the African Union decided to assume political responsibility for the fight against the LRA.