IVORY COAST/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: The Central African Republic needs up to four times more peacekeepers to quell the worsening sectarian conflict and provide security for aid workers, says the European Union aid chief

Record ID: 182395

  • Title: IVORY COAST/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: The Central African Republic needs up to four times more peacekeepers to quell the worsening sectarian conflict and provide security for aid workers, says the European Union aid chief
  • Date: 28th November 2013
  • Summary: GBAKETTE VILLAGE, BETWEEN BOSSANGOA AND BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (NOVEMBER 24, 2013) (REUTERS) VIEW OF EMPTY VILLAGE FROM MOVING CAR VARIOUS OF DESTROYED HUTS, DEBRIS IN VILLAGE THAT WAS DESTROYED TWO MONTHS AGO
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire
  • City:
  • Country: Cote d'Ivoire Central African Republic
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA46KX743TRJJGP1USHCZ882QC4
  • Story Text: Central African Republic needs up to four times more peacekeepers than are currently deployed to quell the worsening sectarian conflict and provide security for aid workers, the European Union's top humanitarian official said on Wednesday (November 27).
    Fears are growing over the living conditions of tens of thousands of people displaced because of sectarian violence.
    The landlocked nation of 4.6 million people at the heart of Africa has descended into chaos since the Seleka coalition of rebels, many of them from neighbouring Chad and Sudan, ousted President Francois Bozize in March.
    The United Nations (U.N.) estimates that 400,000 people have been displaced and 68,000 have fled to neighbouring countries due to the spiralling violence.
    Thousands of people have been displaced around the town of Bouca.
    France is preparing to boost its force in its anarchic former colony to at least 1,000 soldiers once a U.N. resolution is passed next week to improve security until a 3,600-strong African Union force is operational.
    Paris already has around 400 troops based at the airport in the capital Bangui. Around 2,500 regional peacekeepers deployed in the country are to be brought into the AU force.

    "Clearly what needs to be done is beefing up of peacekeeping forces. Tripling or quadrupling what is there," EU aid chief Kristalina Georgieva said, warning they face a twin risk of a Somalia-like state collapse and potential genocide.

    "Unless there is an immediate, significant change in security conditions, these two risks can deepen so much that we have a tragedy on our hands. And we'll look back and say, why didn't we act sooner?" she said.
    A tenth of the population have fled the sectarian violence since the takeover by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels, whose numbers Georgieva said have grown from around 5,000 fighters to some 20,000 today.
    Fearing that tit-for-tat killings could escalate into full-blown war between the Christian majority and Muslims, who represent around 15 percent of the population, world powers are scrambling into action.
    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this month ordered his officials to start preparing for the likely deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping mission. But African leaders want to give the AU force time to try to stabilise the situation.
    Georgieva said rapidly deteriorating security was already hampering humanitarian assistance to the country and aid agencies worried that their workers could soon become targets of militia fighters.
    Christian groups known as "anti-balaka" or "anti-machete" say they have taken up arms to defend themselves. They have neither helmets nor uniforms, only old weapons and their traditional west African charms to protect them. While Seleka fighters have borne the bulk of the blame for the chaos in Central African Republic, Muslim civilians, who represent just 15 percent of the population, say the ex-rebels are their only protection from the Christian militias that have formed.
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