Central African Republic: Sub-prefect of Bambouti and two electoral agents released after ten months of captivity

Three Central African state officials abducted on the very day of the national elections have regained their freedom after approximately ten months of captivity. Koumba Ndiaye, the sub-prefect of Bambouti, and two agents from the National Elections Authority (ANE), Naomie Topien and Dieu-Béni Endjitonguele, were captured on December 28, 2025, in that locality of Haut-Mbomou, in the far southeast of the country. They were released on Monday, October 19, 2026, following an operation led and secured by MINUSCA, the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic.

After a stop in Obo, the three former hostages arrived on Thursday, October 22, at Bangui Mpoko airport on a special UN flight, according to MINUSCA. They were welcomed there by four ministers—Territorial Administration, Public Security, Health, and Defense—as well as the first vice-president of the National Assembly and the president of the ANE, Barthelemy Mathias Morouba. They were then received by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, in the presence of Prime Minister Félix Moloua.

"Truly horrible"

Koumba Ndiaye described a "truly horrible" captivity and thanked the government, MINUSCA, human rights organizations, and the population, the UN mission reports. The release was secured after several months of mediation conducted jointly by local authorities and the Mission; the head of MINUSCA, Valentine Rugwabiza, reported it to the Security Council on October 20, 2026.

The hostages were held by suspected members of the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbè (AAKG) militia, MINUSCA specifies. This armed group appeared in Haut-Mbomou in 2023 to drive out rebels from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, and it was trained by the former Russian paramilitary group Wagner, according to Africanews.

What this abduction signifies

The case highlights the price paid by those who keep the state and the electoral process running in areas furthest from the capital: a sub-prefect and two agents tasked with organizing a vote, abducted precisely because they were managing a polling station on the Sudanese and South Sudanese border. Ten months were required to bring them back, and it was local mediation, supported by the UN, that finally paid off.

For MINUSCA, this outcome could signal a change: "this release opens a new page for Haut-Mbomou," said its spokesperson Yaye Nabo Sene, quoted on October 22, 2026, by Radio Ndeke Luka, referring to the resumption of stabilization programs in a prefecture long left to armed groups.