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CAFRICA-UNREST
UN says its soldiers cleared rebels from southern town
BANGUI, Central African Republic, Feb 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – UN peacekeepers
have pushed out a leading rebel group from the restive southern town of
Alindao in the perenially unstable Central African Republic, the UN mission
in the country said.
Alindao has been wracked by violence and witnessed heavy fighting last
month between CAR troops and rebels from the Unity for Peace in C.Africa
(UPC), a key rebel group.
“Under the aegis of the military operation ‘Mo Kiri’… the UN blue helmets
forced the UPC… to abandon its positions in the centre of Alindao,”
Vladimir Monteiro, the spokesman for the UN mission, known by its French
acronym MINUSCA, said late Sunday.
Monteiro said all “armed UPC elements” had been evicted from the town, an
important trading hub.
Despite a peace accord signed between the government and 14 rebel groups,
including the UPC, in February last year, more than two-thirds of the former
French colony is still under the control of armed rebel groups fighting over
its rich mineral resources.
The UPC, led by Ali Darassa, is one the main rebel groups and is present
over a swathe of territory from the central Bambari region up to the border
with South Sudan.
“MINUSCA reported on Friday January 31 that the UPC had effectively
dismantled its base… and its barricades at entry and points,” Monteiro
said.
“MINUSCA will continue to maintain pressure on the UPC and other armed
groups,” said Mankeur Ndiaye, the MINUSCA chief and the UN Secretary
General’s Special Representative in Central Africa.
The latest round of civil conflict in CAR erupted in 2013 and took a
sectarian turn, pitting Christians against Muslims. The violence has forced a
quarter of the country’s 4.7 million inhabitants to flee their homes.
BSS/AFP/RY/1715 hrs