By Spy Reporter & Agencies
Khartoum, Sudan: The longtime fighting that has been raging on for years between forces of the Central African Republic and various armed groups in the CAR capital Bangui is set to come to an end after both sides signing a peace agreement in Khartoum, Sudan on Monday.
Adolphe Nahayo, the Economic Community of Central African States'(ECCAS) ambassador to CAR, told the media on Sunday that the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) was expected to sign a peace agreement with armed groups in Monday or Tuesday February 4- 5, 2019 . “The agreement will be signed in Bangui on Monday or Tuesday”, Nahayo said. The African Union-brokered negotiations between the CAR government and militant leaders began last week in Sudan and ended on Saturday. Th talks held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum agreed on a mixed-border security mechanism between Bangui, the armed groups and the UN mission to the crisis-torn country. Nahayo added that “They agreed on mixed mechanism between MINUSCA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission), the government, UN troops, and some people from armed groups and national forces where they can be deployed. This mechanism will secure the borders and to keep safe the animals which are passing through some areas.”
The CAR government and armed groups also agreed to appoint a special commission to track all crimes committed beginning in 2013. “They (armed groups and government) agreed that they will appoint a commission to account for all the crimes which have been committed since 2013, during this crisis and they will make a report to a national commission of reconciliation, which will clarify which crime is against humanity, which crime can be a war crime, because those have to pass to the International Criminal Court. For the others it will be transitional justice. And between the work of that commission there will be no judicial action”, Nahayo noted. According to Nahayo, the president of the Central African Republic (CAR), Faustin-Archange Touadera, will appoint a new prime minister one week after the signing of the peace accord. “When the agreement is done, the president will appoint a new prime minister and they will compose a new, inclusive government. The appointment will take place a week after the peace agreement is signed,” Nahayo noted. The Peace talks between the two sides started in January 24 and are the first direct talks between the government of CAR and 14 opposition groups. The CAR government sent a delegation of senior ministers to the talks, led by the president’s chief of staff, Firmin Ngrebada.
Landlocked CAR has been suffering from a long-drawn-out conflict following a 2013 coup. Much of the fighting in recent years has been between Muslim-majority Seleka and Christian Anti-Balaka militias. According to UN data, up to 6,000 people have been killed. In August 2018, the two groups agreed to establish a platform for consultations on sustainable peace in CAR. The groups then also called on the government to engage in reconciliation with support from Russia, the European Union and other regional and international powers. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in late October that it intended to maintain assistance to CAR in rebuilding its armed forces. The ministry said that in early 2018 Moscow supplied CAR’s army with small arms and ammunition as well as sending 175 military advisers to train CAR servicemen. Moscow stressed that all such assistance programs were being undertaken in compliance with the UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions regime. Meanwhile, the UNSC unanimously voted for an extension of the arms embargo against CAR, for an additional year.
