US airlifts Rwandan forces into Central African Republic

Rwandan troops flew on US military aircraft to the Central African Republic on Thursday as part of an African Union mission to the war-torn nation, the Rwandan army said.

Rwanda army chief Patrick Nyamvumba saluted the first batch of 850 soldiers been sent to the Central African Republic as they boarded a US airplane.

Rwanda's deployment comes a day after the AU called for more troops to help stabilize the Central African Republic.

An US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the airlift mission was very similar to the one the United States carried out flying forces from Burundi into the Central African Republic late last year.

A Muslim rebel coalition, Seleka, seized power in the Central African Republic last year, unleashing a wave of killings and looting that in turn sparked revenge attacks by the "anti-balaka" Christian militia.

The AU force known as MISCA, which currently has 4,400 soldiers but is meant to be reinforced up to 6,000, struggled to contain the country's descent into a sectarian bloodbath after Seleka installed its leader, Michel Djotodia, as the country's first Muslim president in March.

Djotodia stepped down last week under international pressure, but the Central African Republic remains tense as its transitional parliament prepares to elect a new interim president.

One of the rules under consideration would bar anyone from running who has been in a rebel group or militia in the past 20 years.

The United Nations estimates that months of fighting in the landlocked former French colony has displaced around 1 million people, or just over one-fifth of the population.

The national death toll is difficult to estimate. More than 1,000 people were killed in Bangui alone last month and sporadic violence has continued despite the presence of 1,600 French troops and 4,000 African Union peacekeepers.

France's UN envoy said on Wednesday that the level of hatred in the Central African Republic between Muslims and Christians had been underestimated and is creating a "nearly impossible" situation for African Union and French forces to combat.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to submit a report to the Security Council next month with recommendations for a possible UN peacekeeping force that would take over from the African troops.

The AU force, which already includes troops from Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad and Equatorial Guinea, is working alongside the 1,600 French troops.

"Besides the battalion's experience as part of the entire RDF (Rwanda Defense Force) in peacekeeping operations, it has undergone a pre-deployment training with specifics on CAR," army spokesman Joseph Nzabamwita said in statement.

After Djotodia seized power, his Seleka fighters' looting, killing and raping sparked revenge attacks from Christian self-defense militias. The violence claimed 1,000 lives in the last month alone and uprooted almost a million people.

Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 01/17/2014 page11)