Central African Republic

Central African Republic officials are pleading with civilians to go back to their villages, after up to 10,000 civilians were displaced this week by fighting between rebels and C.A.R. forces. Officials say a rebel group known as the Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation, or 3R, has relaunched hostilities in the central African nation. 

The Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic has announced that on June 16, 2024, it arrested a former anti-balaka leader, Edmond Beïna, for crimes committed in 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrest is a step toward assuring justice for victims of serious crimes in the country.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) on Wednesday urged greater support for the country’s efforts to build a professional national army, as part of a security overhaul, and stem the proliferation of deadly illicit weapons. [Meetings Coverage]

[…] The political landscape was marked by divergent reactions from the political opposition and armed group leaders to the overtures to dialogue by the President of the Central African Republic, Faustin Archange Touadera.

The American private military company Bancroft Global Development is in discussions with the Central African Republic, it told AFP, while the Russian mercenary group Wagner, established in the country in 2018, is in the process of reorganization.

[…] Rugwabiza explained how her Mission has made clear and measurable progress when it comes to the protection of civilians, despite challenges that have to do with access and mobility in a large country.

[…] Biden said he was taking the step because of "gross violations" of internationally recognized human rights by the Central African Republic and Uganda. He also cited Niger and Gabon's failure to establish or make continual progress toward the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law.

Progress has been made in advancing a 2019 peace agreement in the Central African Republic (CAR) but the support of the international community is still vital, the UN Special Representative Valentine Rugwabiza told the Security Council on Thursday. 

Exiled former Central African Republic presidentFrançois Bozizé, who now leads a rebel coalition, has been sentenced to forced labour for life for conspiracy, rebellion and murder in the chronically unstable nation. Bozize, who seized power in the CAR in 2003 but was toppled a decade later, was sentenced in absentia … .

[…] Since Prigozhin’s attempted coup in June and subsequent death in a plane crash outside Moscow just two months later, Russia has been engaged in a high-stakes scramble to centralize his empire on the African continent, … .