12 militiamen killed in Central African Republic
Officials in the Central African Republic (CAR) say a dozen members of an armed group have been killed in clashes with United Nations (UN) peacekeepers and government troops in the northeastern part of the country.
Ange-Maxime Kazagui, the CAR’s government spokesman, said in a statement on Tuesday that the fighting had occurred two days earlier, when the so-called Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central Africa (FPRC) entered the flashpoint town of Birao before being repelled.
“The toll is 12 dead on the FPRC’s side,” Kazagui said.
The UN force in the African country also confirmed in a statement that “heavily armed” FPRC fighters had entered the town and were later pushed back.
The FPRC is one of the largest armed groups in the CAR, a land-locked impoverished country where militia groups control most of the territory, often fighting for control over resources.
Birao was also the scene of clashes between the FPRC and the Movement of Central African Liberators for Justice (MLCJ) — which is mainly drawn from the Kara ethnic group — last July.
Both the FPRC and MLCJ militia groups are among the signatories of a February 2019 peace agreement between the CAR government and armed groups wreaking havoc in the African country.
Thousands of people have been killed and nearly a quarter of the CAR’s population of 4.7 million has been displaced by conflict since 2013.
Complicating the situation in the mineral-rich country is meddling by its former colonial master, France, which decided to push the Muslim Seleka group out and install the anti-Balaka militia comprised of Christians.
Some 11,000 UN peacekeepers are deployed to the country since 2014 within the framework of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
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