The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday extended the mandate of the Organization’s peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), until 15 November 2018, increased the mission’s troop level by 900 military personnel.
The increase in the number of the Mission’s ‘blue helmets’ comes against the backdrop of increasing fighting in the African nation and the resulting added insecurity and misery of its civilian population.
The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR, known by its French acronym, MINUSCA, has also come under numerous attacks, which have killed at least 12 peacekeepers this year and injured many more.
In an effort to draw attention to the fragile situation in the country that, in his words, is “often far from the media spotlight,” Secretary-General António Guterres travelled to CAR in late October.
In CAR, the UN chief warned of religious divisions in the country, stressing that these rifts are a result of “political manipulation that must be condemned and avoided at all costs.”
Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Council condemned “in the strongest terms” incitement to ethnic and religious hatred and violence and the multiple violations of international humanitarian law and the widespread human rights violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence, committed – in particular – by the mainly Muslim ex-Seleka and mainly Christian anti-Balaka elements, as well as other militia groups, and the targeting of civilians from specific communities.