United Nations (UN) General Secretary (GS) Ban Ki-moon arrived in Bangui on Saturday as the United Nations signals its determination to deploy peacekeepers in the strife-torn Central African Republic.
The UN SB will meet transitional president Catherine Samba Panza to discuss ways to end the deadly cycle of intercommunal violence that has laid waste to the country for a year and led senior UN figures to raise the specter of genocide.
Ban, who will spend just a few hours in Bangui before heading to Rwanda for the 20th anniversary of that country’s genocide, said ahead of his visit he was “deeply troubled by the appalling atrocities” against civilians in the Central African Republic.
He has called for a 12,000-strong UN force to be in place by the end of the year in the former French colony, where thousands have been killed since sectarian violence broke out a year ago.
He used an EU-Africa summit this week to urge the international community to provide the extra funds and troops needed for the force, which would take over from the some 2,000 French and 6,000 African Union soldiers already in place.
One UN diplomat said the secretary general, “terrified by the prospect of a new Rwanda”, had unveiled plans in early March for a major operation that would also include a civilian mission.
But some member states remain unconvinced, largely due to the high cost of such an operation to a United Nations already struggling to raise the funds needed to provide basic assistance to the population.
The force would be tasked with restoring order in the impoverished country – a huge undertaking, with about a quarter of its 4.6 million people displaced because of the conflict.
