UN mulls additional forces in Central African Republic

The United Nations has raised the possibility of sending additional troops to the crisis-hit Central African Republic.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, discussed the “deeply troubling situation” in the country with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday night.

Nesirky also said Ban and Fabius examined what could be done to increase support for African peacekeepers and to accelerate the deployment of European Union troops to the country.

The UN secretary-general highlighted the “collective responsibility” of the international community with respect to the Central African people.

“The international response must be robust enough to stop the violence and prevent what has a high potential to result in additional widespread atrocities,” Ban was quoted by Nesirky as saying.

The Central African Republic has been engulfed in a bloody sectarian violence involving Christians and Muslims since last year.

African peacekeeping force MISCA has already deployed some 5,400 of 6,000 planned troops. Another 1,600 French soldiers are on the ground in the country and the European Union has promised to deploy 500 troops to Bangui at the beginning of March.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the Central African Republic since last December, when Christian militias launched coordinated attacks against the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government in March 2013.

Thousands of Muslims have fled the capital Bangui during the past months.

The UN refugee agency said on February 8 that around 9,000 people had fled the Central African Republic to eastern Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has received more than 1,500 refugees.