Along with the Baya, a closely related group, the Mandjia are important historically for their resistance to invasion by various Muslim powers to the north.

In March 2013, rebels of the Séléka Alliance overtook the town, as part of the 2012-13 Central African Republic conflict.

The rebels are seeking to overthrow the government of President of the Central African Republic François Bozizé[4] In January 2014, Bossangoa was described as a ghost town, "strangely empty" with "no people, only charred houses and storefronts, block after block of blackened roofless dwellings, an abandoned bank, a gas station stripped down to the metal frames of its pumps, and an emptied city hall."

The population, which once numbered 50,000, has mostly fled the city to escape communal violence between Muslims and Christians in the aftermath of the civil war.

[5] In April 2014, Chadian troops escorting a convoy of "the last 540 Muslim residents of the northwestern town of Bossangoa to Goré, Chad," were attacked by local militia as they passed through Boguila."