PARIS/UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – France said yesterday it plans to send another 400 troops to help combat a crisis in the Central African Republic as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon pleaded for more swift, robust international help to stop sectarian violence that could turn into a genocide. French President Francois Hollande’s office urged other countries to show “increased solidarity” and called on the United Nations Security Council to approve the creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force in the landlocked former French colony.
Some 838,000 people have been displaced since the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group seized power in March last year in the majority Christian country. At least 2,000 people have been killed since December in what a U.N. official described as a wave of “ethnic-religious cleansing.”
“The dark clouds of mass atrocities and sectarian cleansing loom over the Central African Republic,” Ban told a U.N. Security Council meeting on cooperation between the world body and the European Union.
“We cannot claim to care about mass atrocity crimes and then shrink from what it means to actually prevent them,” he said. “Our commitment to protect civilians is only as meaningful as the political, military and financial muscle deployed to defend them.”
The additional troops will bring France’s Central African Republic deployment to 2,000.
France sent 1,600 troops in December to help an African Union force of 6,000 peacekeepers, while the European Union has agreed to send around 500 troops.
Hollande’s office said that some of the additional 400 French troops would be later transferred to the European force.
“It’s essential that this European force can be swiftly deployed and that member states of the EU can mobilize to contribute towards this,” French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told the Security Council.
