EU to send smaller than expected force to help stabilise CAR

BRUSSELS: The EU decided yesterday to send troops to help stabilise the Central African Republic, deploying its first major army operation in six years. But the force will be smaller than originally expected at around 500-strong.

The EU has been spurred into action by communal bloodshed in the CAR that led a senior UN official to warn last week of a risk of genocide there without a more decisive international response.

France, which sent 1 600 troops to its former colony last month to stop massacres between Muslim and Christian militias, triggered by a March coup, welcomed the EU’s move, which follows French lobbying for stronger European support for French and African efforts to halt the violence.

“This means that, in co-operation with the UN and the African forces, Europe will militarily support Central African Republic, as we asked,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters.

But he said the size of the force under discussion was just 500 soldiers, smaller than the contingent of up to 1 000 soldiers that EU officials had earlier suggested could be dispatched.

Few EU countries have so far come forward with firm offers of troops, and some of the EU force could be French soldiers, diplomats said.

German Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier said the decision to commit troops did not mean it was “the beginning of a big engagement…”

Over a million people have been displaced by the violence and over 1 000 slain last month alone in the capital Bangui.

EU officials hope the force, which will be based around Bangui and its airport, will start arriving by the end of next month. – Reuters