Terror organization: Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC)

Status: Leader

Role: Under his command the UPC’s militants have killed, tortured, raped, and displaced thousands of people since 2014.
The UPC uses murder, kidnapping, and other violence to achieve its goals. On November 15, 2018, the UPC attacked an internally displaced persons camp in Alindao, resulting in the deaths of at least 112 people. On March 15, 2020, four men were reportedly detained and tortured in Mboki under the orders of the UPC.

On 29 January 2019, 18 people were killed and 23 wounded when UPC fighters opened fire during a funeral ceremony in Ippy. Between 2016 and 2020 UPC killed more than 1300 people. On 6 October 2021, 34 civilians were killed by alleged UPC rebels in Matchika massacre.

UPC used to profit from gold and diamond mines in areas it controls including the Ndassima mine, which they share control with the FPRC. They also profited from controlling cattle markets in Mobaye and Kouango.

On 17 December 2020, the UPC joined the Coalition of Patriots for Change.

Location: Central African Republic

Also Known As: Ali Daras; Ali Ndarass; Ali Daras, Ali Darrassa, Ali, Ali Darassa Mahamant

Born: 22 September 1978 (age 45) Central African Republic or Chad

Nationality: Nigerian

Activities:
Ali Darassa Mahamat (born 22 September 1978), also known as Ali Daras and Ali Ndarass is a Nigerian leader of the Central African rebel group, the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC), which is dominant around Bambari. He is an ethnic Fula and his UPC is largely Fula. Darassa was the right-hand man of Chadian rebel leader, Abdel Kader Baba-Laddé until Baba-Laddé abandoned his armed struggle in September 2012. The UPC is an Ex-Séléka faction made up of disbanded members of the former rebel coalition known as Séléka. Starting in November 2016, another Ex-Séléka faction, the FPRC, allied with their former enemy, the Anti-balaka, and attacked UPC. The fighting displaced 20,000 and was ethnic in nature with the FPRC singling out Fulani people. He is reportedly well studied in past UN peacekeeping missions in order to deal with the peacekeeping mission known as MINUSCA in the country.

On 17 December 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement that it was seizing all of Ali Darassa’s US assets, and criminalizing transactions with him “for serious human rights abuses”, stemming from his leadership of the UPC.

On 21 September 2023, the Bangui Court of Appeal sentenced Darassa in absentia to a life sentence of forced labor for “conspiracy” and “rebellion”. Darassa is condemned for his role in the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC).