* CAR rebels attack mining town on Tuesday
* Rebels demand government implement 2007 peace deal
* Instability has hit investment in resource-rich nation
BANGUI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - An alliance of rebel groups
behind a spate of recent attacks in Central African Republic has
threatened to overthrow President Francois Bozize if he fails to
fully implement a five-year-old peace deal.
The resurgence of attacks risks plunging the minerals-rich
but unstable nation, where a number of rebel groups have fought
low-level insurgencies since 2005, into another spiral of
violence.
The rebel alliance - made up of breakaway factions from the
CPJP, UFDR and CPSK rebel groups in the north of the country
which signed a peace treaty with the government in 2007 - said
the government must fully implement the terms of that deal.
In a statement issued on Monday, the alliance demanded,
among other things, that the government pay rebel soldiers money
promised to them to lay down their weapons and free political
prisoners.
"Otherwise ... (the alliance) will take it upon itself to do
everything possible to change, sooner or later, this regime
which has done nothing to bring justice and peace to the Central
African Republic. Enough is enough," it said.
Early on Tuesday, the rebels raided Bria, a mining town with
a population of about 40,000 which lies some 600 km (360 miles)
from the capital Bangui.
"Fighting started about 5 a.m. today. We were woken by heavy
gunfire. Most of the population started fleeing. The military
base seems to be in the hands of the rebels," Bria's Mayor
Moussa Gouman told Reuters by telephone as gunfire could be
heard in the background.
Authorities in the capital declined to comment.
On Sunday, the rebels attacked government soldiers sent to
retake the town of Ndele in the north of the country which was
seized on Dec. 10.
"Our troops were ambushed by the rebels on (Sunday) night.
Forty of them are unaccounted for as we speak," a CAR army
captain told Reuters, requesting not to be named.
"Two of our vehicles loaded with weapons, ammunition and
fuel supplies for our men were also seized by the rebels," he
said.
Instability in landlocked CAR, roughly the size of France,
its former colonial power, has discouraged major investment in
its timber, gold, uranium and diamond deposits.
A 2006 advance by the nearly 3,000-strong UFDR on Bangui was
only halted with the intervention of French armed forces before
the peace deal was signed in April 2007.
The CPJP embarked on a separate rebellion with about 1,000
soldiers before agreeing a ceasefire, but most of the rebel
groups remained armed.
A mix of local rebels, bandits, ethnic tensions and the
spillover of conflicts from neighbouring Chad, Sudan and
Democratic Republic of Congo have undermined efforts to
stabilise the nation which has suffered misrule since
independence in 1960.
President Bozize took power in a 2003 coup and won a new
mandate in January 2011 elections, which were dismissed by
opponents as fraudulent.
(Additional reporting and writing by Bate Felix; Editing by
Robin Pomeroy)