Highlights:
The United Nations is set to send more peacekeepers and its first batch of drones to the Central African Republic. The deployment is set to improve the security ahead of the December 27th elections according to a UN official o Tuesday 10th November.
CAR is set to have its first general elections since the bloodletting coup in March 2013; the timely deployment is in a bid to prevent a re-occurrence of violence that deterred the first round of voting in October.
Summary:
The United Nations is set to deploy additional peacekeepers to CAR in readiness for the country’s general elections in December 27th. The elections were first slotted for October but were postponed due to violence that led to the rescheduling.
Additionally, the deployment that will not only have peacekeepers but the first drone into CAR are expected to be in place in time for the Pope’s visit to Bangui seeing as security concern have raised concerns with the Vatican that could lead to the cancellation of the November 29-30 Pope Francis’ visit to CAR.
The new deployment is expected to post the current 12,000 strong MINUSCA by about 1140 troops. Egypt is expected to send 750 troops, 140 police from Mauritania and two companies stations stationed in West Africa will temporarily move to CAR.
MINUSCA will deploy its first batch of surveillance drones over Bangui to provide spot-on information of any and all kind of suspicious and security threats.
CAR has been under a transitional government since 2014 when the President Francois Bozize stepped down and the December elections are expected to restore the country to normalcy under a constitutionally elected president. Since the coup in 2013, the country has been experiencing a lot of sectarian related violence mainly between the anti-Balaka militias and Muslim Seleka Rebels.
