Chad to withdraw peacekeepers from CAR after criticism

Chad’s Foreign Ministry has announced that it would pull out its 850 peacekeeping troops from the African Union mission in the neighboring Central African Republic (CAR).

The Thursday move follows criticism from right groups and Christian militants after Chadian troops were involved in shootings that killed 32 people last weekend in the CAR’s capital of Bangui.

“Despite the sacrifices we have made, Chad and Chadians have been targeted in a gratuitous and malicious campaign that blamed them for all the suffering in CAR,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Chadian troops will remain deployed in the violence-racked country “while the practicalities of the withdrawal are confirmed,” added the Foreign Ministry statement.

The government, however, offered no timeframe for when its force-withdrawal would begin.

Chad, with a predominantly Muslim population, has aided tens of thousands of Central African Republic Muslims in escaping attacks by mainly Christian “anti-balaka,” militias bent on taking revenge against those they view as having supported the Muslim rebels who seized power in March 2013.

The Chad contingent makes up about 15% of the 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping deployment, which is bolstered by 2,000 soldiers from France, the country’s former colonial ruler.

UNHCR numbers indicate that 637,000 people in total are now displaced inside CAR, while 82,000 mostly Muslim Central Africans have poured into neighboring countries in the past three months.