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UN Central Africa Republic Mission: United Nations Approves New Central Africa Republic Peacekeeping Mission / Africa News

UN Peacekeepers

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to authorize a 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic on Thursday.

The immediate mandate of the mission is to end the violence between Christians and Muslims that has threatened to slip into genocide.

The resolution also authorizes some 2,000 French troops to work alongside the United Nation peacekeepers to speed up the process of ending the conflict which has left thousands of people dead.

The peacekeepers will assume their authority on September 15 from the African Union which is present in the country with 5,600 peacekeepers. The African Union would then be integrated into the new UN force.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have fled the country to Chad and Cameroon as Christian militias have stepped up their attacks since the resignation of President Michel Djotodia.

Local reporters say Clashes between Christian and Muslim fighters on late Wednesday left at least 30 people dead and forced dozen others to flee their homes in the town of Dekoa.

Muslim civilians are being targeted by Christian militias known as anti-balaka in revenge for the seizure of power by mainly Muslim rebels last year.

The anti-balaka fighters have killed 21 African Union peacekeepers and Union has branded the group as terrorists who want to destabilize the Central Africa Republic.

The anti-balaka says they are taking revenge for atrocities committed by the Muslim rebels, the Seleka when Mr. Djotodia seized power in March 2013. The Seleka rebels overthrew the Bozize regime.

The Central Africa Republic has been in turmoil since the Seleka rebels led by Micheal Djotodia ousted President Francois Bozize last year. President Djotodia resigned in January in a deal that was brokered by regional leaders given way for the first female president of the country, Catherine Samba-Panza but violence continue to threaten the stability of the country.

The United Nations World Food Programme says that about 1.3 million people who are equal to a quarter of the population in the country are in desperate need of aid.

The United States of America’s Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who visited Bangui on Wednesday for the second time, said the violence between Christians and Muslims had brought the Central African Republic to the edge of disaster.

“Untold horrors continue in small villages throughout the countryside and more than 19,000 Muslims are trapped in the capital, too afraid of anti-balaka forces to leave their hiding places,” Power told reporters.

Human Rights Watch has said that the Christian anti-balaka militia killed at least 72 Muslim men and boys in the month of February alone.

The United Nations says the conflict has driven a million people out of their homes and further estimates that about 2.6 million people need urgent humanitarian aid in the country.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com

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