Central African Republic

Thousands took to the streets Friday in the Central African Republic to protest President Faustin Archange Touadera’s plans to run for a third term with the backing of Russian-led mercenaries from the Wagner group. 

The UN Secretary-General on Saturday strongly condemned an attack on peacekeepers serving with UN mission MINUSCA in the Central African Republic which left one Kenyan ‘blue helmet’ dead.

A UN report released on Wednesday has uncovered a pattern of grave human rights violations committed by armed groups in southeast Central African Republic (CAR), targeting Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees. 

[…] Unanimously adopting resolution 2759 (2024) …, the 15-nation organ, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, decided to maintain current troop levels of up to 14,400 military personnel, 3,020 police personnel and 108 corrections officers.

The UK government announced sanctions on Thursday against three private mercenary groups operating in Africa with links to the Kremlin, including Wagner group successor Africa Corps. "These sanctions will bear down on Russian malign activity in Libya, Mali and the CAR (Central African Republic), exposing and combatting Russia's illicit activity in Africa," a government statement said, announcing its latest package of measures against Russia.

The Council today adopted a decision extending the mandate of the EU advisory mission in the Central African Republic (EUAM RCA) for a further two years, until 7 August 2026, with a budget allocation of over €24 million for this period.

The Central African Republic (CAR) is highly exposed to the impacts of climate change due to socioecological vulnerabilities and ongoing insecurity. Drivers of vulnerability include the absence of state authority, natural resource mismanagement, and low household and community resilience. 

During the reporting period, the political situation was marked by the continued efforts by the Government to mobilize resources to organize the local elections, which were postponed to April 2025, owing to funding, operational and technical challenges. … The security situation remained volatile … .

The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) continues to train Central African Republic (CAR) soldiers, with more than 600 graduating in the latest batch. … Rwanda now has more than 2 000 soldiers serving in the CAR under the United Nations peacekeeping mission. It also maintains more than 1 000 soldiers in the CAR under a separate bilateral agreement since December 2020.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday lifted the arms embargo on the Central African Republic (CAR) government forces, while calling on all nations to take all necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply of all types of weapons and related materiel to armed groups operating there.