CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC SAYS RUSSIA AND RWANDA DEPLOYS TROOPS IN FACE OF COUP THREAT

Mon 21 December 2020:

The Central African Republic says Russia and Rwanda have deployed hundreds of troops in the deeply unstable country amid an alleged coup bid ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

A government spokesman said that Russia “has sent several hundred soldiers and heavy weapons” in the framework of a bilateral cooperation agreement between Moscow and Bangui, according to AFP.

Rwanda has “also sent several hundred men who are on the ground and have started fighting,” he added.

Rwanda said it had deployed a “protection force” to the Central African Republic after its troops in the UN peacekeeping force there were attacked by rebels.

The government made the announcement on December 21, two days after accusing former President Francois Bozize of plotting a coup after an alliance of rebel groups started marching on the capital, Bangui.

A spokesman for the UN force in the country said the rebel forces have been pushed back and that the situation was “under control.”

Bozize denied he was plotting a coup against President Faustin-Archange Touadera.

 

The Kremlin described the crisis as “a cause for serious concern” but did not comment on the alleged deployment of Russian troops.

“We are of course monitoring and analyzing the situation,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Bozize, who came to power in a coup in 2003 before himself being overthrown in 2013, had declared he was running in Sunday’s vote and was considered Touadera’s main rival.

But the 74-year-old was barred from running by the country’s top court, ruling that a warrant was out for his arrest on charges including murder, arbitrary arrest and torture.

Russia has fostered close ties in recent years with the Central African Republic, one of Africa’s poorest and most unstable countries, even though it is rich in resources like diamonds and uranium. Russian military advisers are currently stationed in the country to help train government forces.