Central African Republic

Nine fighters from an armed group that launched a week-long attack last week in south-eastern Central African Republic have been arrested. The assailants belong to a branch of the CAR’s biggest armed group, the Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), the country’s special criminal court said in a statement on Monday.

Militia clashes this week in Central African Republic left at least 25 people dead and 51 injured, the country’s communications minister said, confirming the latest violence to undermine last year’s peace deal between rebel groups and the government. … Political tensions are meanwhile rising in the country ahead of presidential elections slated for December but which may be pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on Central African Republic rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year signed a peace agreement between the government and armed groups. Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a government position under the terms of the February 2019 accord signed in Khartoum. However, in the last report by U.N. experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was mentioned as looking for fighters.

A senior United Nations official has welcomed the move by lawmakers in the Central African Republic (CAR) to criminalize child recruitment. The National Assembly in CAR recently adopted the Child Protection Code, which criminalizes the recruitment and use of children, among other crimes.

A United Nations peacekeeper from Burundi was killed on Sunday while attempting to stop an armed militant attack in the Central African Republic (CAR), according to a statement released by the UN Mission in the country, MINUSCA.

A February 2019 agreement is the latest in a string of attempts to bring peace to the Central African Republic. Will it hold? Crisis Group expert Hans de Marie Heungoup goes to the country to find out.

On February 6, guarantors and many of the signatory parties of the Political Accord for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic (CAR) celebrated its one-year anniversary. … The growing deterioration of relations between the state and the signatory armed groups in the lead up to the December 2020 elections points to a worrying future. The most concerning issues in this regard are related to the lingering challenges with the roll-out of the Unités Spéciales Mixtes de Sécurité? (USMS) and continued violations of the peace accord.

One year after the signing of a peace deal in the Central African Republic (CAR), State authority is being extended throughout the country, violence against civilians has decreased, and an inclusive Government remains in place, the UN Security Council heard on Thursday.

In a February 18 statement, the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSCA said blue helmets and CAR armed forces (FACA) had repelled “heavily armed” FPRC fighters who were threatening a FACA base, the U.N. base, and a site for internally displaced people.