Placeholder canvas

Hollande in C.Africa as France digs in

Date:

French President Francois Hollande is expected in Bangui Friday, nearly three months into a mission to stop deadly sectarian killing that is proving more arduous than planned.

Capping a week that saw the French parliament extend Operation Sangaris and 400 extra troops arrive in the Central African Republic, Hollande was due to meet its interim president.

Catherine Samba Panza has urged France and the African Union to make full use of their UN mandate to “wipe out these unchecked elements that poison our lives.”

France’s top commander in Bangui, General Francisco Soriano, has retorted that the Central Africans needed to start doing their share.

“Central Africans need to participate in the reconstruction of their own country. We already do a lot,” he told AFP Thursday in Bangui, where security was high ahead of Hollande’s visit.

Hollande visited the former colony for the first time in early December, days after French troops poured into the country to cheers from villagers.

Three months on, there is more hostility toward the French, as the violence has continued to escalate, sparking warnings by top aid officials that ethnic cleansing was under way.

“No need to come Mr Hollande, we’re already dead,” said one Muslim woman in a Bangui street when asked about the French president’s fresh visit.

– Reinforcements arrive –

Rebels from the mainly Muslim Seleka group seized power nearly a year ago but some went rogue and mostly Christian vigilantes formed in response to a campaign of abuses.

Michel Djotodia, the Seleka leader who became the country’s first Muslim leader, was forced to quit in January but the “anti-balaka” self-defence groups have in turn escaped the control of the authorities and are continuing to commit atrocities.

“We need to work more with the police to put them back in the saddle,” Soriano said at a Bangui road block organised by the homegrown army with the help of French troops.

He conceded however it was a problem that many in the security forces went unpaid.

On Thursday morning, a convoy of around 50 armoured vehicles and lorries entered the country from Chad, carrying 400 additional French troops to reinforce the 1,600 already on the ground.

The European Union has also pledged up to 1,000 troops but negotiations on which countries will provide them are continuing in Brussels.

Georgia, anxious to cement good ties with the EU, on Thursday said it would contribute 150 troops to the European mission.

Despite concerns that France could get bogged down in a war offering little prospect of a clear-cut success, the French parliament approved the extension of Operation Sangaris on Tuesday.

But Paris is urging the UN to expedite plans to take over the lead role in peacekeeping efforts.

A police official in the Republic of the Congo was quoted Thursday as saying that a man who calls himself the coordinator of the anti-balaka had been arrested on Tuesday.

Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, a minister in the Francois Bozize regime ousted by Seleka in March 2013, was arrested in northern Congo and transferred to Brazzaville.

He later denied the report, saying he had neither been arrested nor moved to Brazzaville.

Nearly a quarter of the 4.6-million Central African population has been displaced since the start of the conflict.

Relief organisations have warned that the flight of Muslims — who controlled a large share of trade and farming — risked exacerbating a major food crisis in what was already one of the world’s poorest countries before the conflict.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals Defeat Delhi Capitals By 12 Runs

Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals clinched a 12-run win over Delhi...

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison For Fraud

New Delhi: Sam Bankman-Fried, the renowned founder of cryptocurrency...

NIA Arrests One Key Conspirator In Rameshwaram Cafe Blast Case

New Delhi: In a significant development in the investigation...