Central African authorities have rejected a U.N. expert report which denounced violations of international humanitarian law by Central African military and Russian instructors supporting them against rebels trying to overthrow President Faustin Archange Touadéra.
In a statement, Rameaux-Claude Bireau, Minister of National Defense said this was a clear desire to tarnish the image of their military institution while it continues to make enormous sacrifices to restore the authority of the state throughout the territory.
According to him the slanderous publication based on fabricated and unverified evidence is a strategy that aims first to undermine the morale of the troops.
Recently submitted to the Security Council and obtained on Sunday by the New York Times, this document from the experts in charge of monitoring the arms embargo imposed since 2013 on Bangui confirmed the suspicions of a very active role of Russian “instructors”.
In recent months, several incidents have pitted peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic against these paramilitaries, such as assassinations of UN officials and looting, aggravating tensions in the Security Council with Russia, according to diplomats.
The deployment of these paramilitaries is part of a vast diplomatic and financial offensive launched by Moscow in this former French colony plunged in a civil war since 2013, which has decreased in intensity since 2018.
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