U.N. to Speed Up Central Africa Peackeeping Force
The United Nations said Friday it would speed up planning for a possible U.N. peacekeeping force in Central African Republic, where deadly strife is spreading.
Consultations with the Security Council and the African Union "will be expeditiously undertaken" in coming days, it said, after talks between U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande.
Ban could decide to send an "emergency" force of peacekeepers from other missions in Africa to help French and African troops battling to contain sectarian unrest in which more than 1,000 people have been killed, diplomats said.
Hollande urged the United Nations to play a "bigger role" in containing the crisis in his telephone talks with Ban, the French president's office said.
A U.N. statement said events in the impoverished state were now "grave" and that Ban and Hollande had discussed efforts to bolster an African Union peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, officially known as MISCA.
The two leaders said there was a "need to address capacity constraints by raising the number of personnel capable of providing security to the territory, undertake disarmament and support the organization of elections."
"As requested by the Security Council, the United Nations has already started contingency planning and preparations for the potential transformation of MISCA into a United Nations peacekeeping operation," said the statement.
"Further consultations with members of the Security Council and with the African Union will be expeditiously undertaken in the coming days.
Under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed this month which authorized the African Union-French force, Ban must produce a report within three months on turning this into a full U.N. mission.
But Ban said in a recent report that if the Security Council approved he could bring in troops from other peacekeeping missions on an "emergency basis".
Source: Agence France Presse
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