The UN-backed Special Criminal Court in the Central African Republic (a landlocked country in central Africa that has endured decades of conflict and political instability) is set to try former president Faustin-Archange Bozizé on charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearances allegedly committed by his security forces between 2009 and 2013. Bozizé, now 79 and living in exile in Guinea-Bissau, will be tried in absentia as commander-in-chief, alongside three former senior military officers already in custody. The case is a significant test for the court, which was established to deliver accountability for the atrocities that accompanied the country's devastating civil war, triggered by Bozizé's own overthrow in 2013; he was previously sentenced in absentia to life at forced labour on separate charges in 2022.