Mahamat Al-Khatim

Mahamat Al-Khatim is a Chadian Arab belonging to the Salamat ethnic group.[1] At some point, he rebelled against the Chadian government, but was reintegrated into the Chad National Army in 1997.[2] He was among the so-called "liberators", fighters who had supported Bozizé's coup d’état in 2003. In 2013 he joined the Séléka coalition.[2] In July 2015 he created the Central African Patriotic Movement armed group which controlled areas in northern parts of the Central African Republic, including Moyenne-Sido, Kabo and Kaga-Bandoro.[1] In December 2020, al-Khatim and the MPC joined the Coalition of Patriots for Change led by François Bozizé. He ordered his fighters to attack Bangui in January 2021.[3] Due to the failure of this coup attempt, al-Khatim was forced to flee the Central African Republic and, as of June 2021, he resides in the capital of Chad, N'Djamena.[4]