Consensus is emerging to begin ‘contingency planning’ to send a UN peacekeeping force to the lawless Central African Republic (CAR), the UN’s No.2 official said in mid-November.
‘The country in the heart of Africa is descending into complete chaos before our eyes and requires a capable security force on the ground’, UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson told the UN Security Council. The occupation: ‘must be robust and prevent what has the high potential to result in widespread atrocities’.
Christians targeted
Elements of the now-disbanded Séléka rebel alliance, which threw out the CAR president in March, continue to loot, rape and murder Christians in particular.
A UN team dispatched to the CAR in late October reported that violence between the Islamist-dominated Séléka and Christian-dominated defence squads threatens to degenerate into a countrywide religious and ethnic divide, with the potential to spiral into an uncontrollable situation that could include atrocities and have serious regional implications.
The UN’s French ambassador, Gérard Araud, said once a UN force is authorised, it will take several months to get it into the CAR. To improve security until then, representatives of the CAR, the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States urged the Security Council for international support of the current peace operation on the ground, known as MISCA.
After council members met privately for two hours, Eliasson said: ‘The present forecast is that there will be a strengthened MISCA and there will also be contributions from member states in agreement with the authorities in the CAR. But we also have been asked by several missions to start contingency planning for a possible UN peacekeeping operation’.
