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Chad Pulling Out From Peacekeeping Force in Central African Republic Chad, Amid Criticism, Will Pull Troops From Force in Central Africa
(about 9 hours later)
LONDON — In an apparent blow to international efforts to bolster peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic, Chad said Thursday that it was withdrawing from an African Union force confronting a wave of sectarian bloodletting that has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. UNITED NATIONS — Facing repeated criticism of its conduct, Chad announced Thursday that it would withdraw its troops from an African Union-led peacekeeping force in the neighboring Central African Republic.
The Chadian announcement came as Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, sought to persuade a gathering of African and European leaders in Brussels to expand peacekeeping efforts, currently made up of 6,000 African troops, 2,000 French soldiers and a promised force of 1,000 from the European Union. The pullout solves an immediate problem for the United Nations, which plans to redeploy some of the African Union forces into a peacekeeping mission under a United Nations mandate in the coming months. The withdrawal means that the world body no longer faces the awkward choice of whether to accept Chadian forces as part of that mission.
In a statement, the Chadian government said its 850 soldiers had been accused of siding with Muslim militias in sectarian clashes with Christian fighters that have swept the Central African Republic for months. “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 the Central African Republic, the Chadian foreign ministry said in a statement, according to news reports. But it also potentially creates new logistical and political problems. The United Nations must find additional troops at a time when several peacekeeping missions worldwide are struggling to fill their ranks. It must also ensure that Chad, which has a considerable political stake in the Central African Republic, works with other nations to stabilize its disintegrating neighbor.
The forces will remain until the logistics of their withdrawal can be arranged, the statement said. Next week, the Security Council, in which Chad holds a two-year seat, is expected to consider authorizing a large, robust peacekeeping mission. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, says the Central African Republic needs 10,000 soldiers and an additional 1,820 police officers, as well as experts to help build government institutions.
The surprise announcement came after an episode last weekend when Chadian troops were reported to have killed dozens of people. On Monday, African peacekeepers defended their action, saying the Chadians had been acting in self-defense after an attack by Christian militants. The African Union mission, fortified with soldiers from several African countries, including Chad, Burundi and Rwanda, has sought to stanch the bloodshed in the Central African Republic since a political fight turned swiftly into a raging sectarian conflict. It is aided by 2,000 French troops. The European Union promised in January to send as many as 1,000 soldiers. An advance team is on the way.
The latest accounts of violence in the Central African Republic came on Thursday in a report by Human Rights Watch that described more killings in remote areas by both Christian and Muslim militias. In in the southwest of the country, the report said, Christian militias known as anti-balaka killed 72 Muslim men and boys, some as young as 9, in two attacks in February in the village of Guen. Days later, fighters from the Seleka, whose chaotic rule in the Central African Republic collapsed in January, joined with cattle herders to slaughter 19 people in the village of Yakongo 20 miles away. Chad has played an influential and ambiguous role in the Central African Republic. It was accused of supporting the overthrow of the nation’s president, and then later helped remove the rebel who ousted him, making way for a new transitional government. In a statement on Thursday, the Chadian government said that its 850 soldiers had been accused of siding with Muslim militias in sectarian clashes with Christian fighters that have swept the Central African Republic for months.
“These horrendous killings show that the French and African Union peacekeeping deployment is not protecting villages from these deadly attacks,” said Lewis Mudge, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council shouldn’t waste another minute in authorizing a United Nations peacekeeping mission with the troops and capacity to protect the country’s vulnerable people.” “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 the Central African Republic, the Chadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, according to news reports.
He said, “Peacekeepers are providing security in the main towns, but smaller communities in the southwest are left exposed.” In addition to troops who are part of the African Union mission, Chadian soldiers have long been deployed independently in parts of the Central African Republic. It is unclear whether they will remain in the country.
The Human Rights Watch report followed an assessment by the United Nations on Tuesday that the fighting had killed 60 people and injured more than 100 in the previous 10 days. The role of Chadian soldiers came under particular scrutiny after an episode last weekend, when Chadian troops were reported to have killed dozens of people. On Monday, the Chadians defended their action, saying they had been acting in self-defense after an attack by Christian militants.
The violence has forced almost 640,000 people to flee their homes, including more than 200,000 in Bangui, the capital. More than 80,000, mostly Muslims, have fled to neighboring countries. The episode showed the extent to which Chad has become implicated in a conflict in which militias claiming to represent Muslim and Christian civilians attack their rival communities.
“We are deeply concerned about the desperate plight of the people of the Central African Republic,” Mr. Ban, the United Nations secretary general, said in Brussels on Wednesday, adding that he would “urge all countries to strongly consider providing badly needed additional troops and police and providing funding and support.” “Given the alleged civilian killings by Chadian soldiers, it would have been untenable for the U.N. to re-hat the Chadian contingents,” said Adam Smith, who studies peacekeeping at the International Peace Institute. “The U.N. needs Chad not to play an unhelpful role with regard to resolving the crisis in CAR. Chad has clearly been the most influential neighbor in terms of CAR’s political stability or instability.”
He was speaking at the opening of a two-day African summit grouping the European Union and many members of the African Union for their first formal encounter since a gathering in Libya in 2010, before the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The latest accounts of violence in the Central African Republic came on Thursday in a report by Human Rights Watch that described more killings in remote areas by both Christian and Muslim militias.
The meeting was supposed to cover issues such as trade, immigration and the assertive role China is playing in African economies once dominated by Europe’s former colonial powers, but it was overshadowed by the chaos in the Central African Republic and lingering postcolonial sensitivities. “These horrendous killings show that the French and African Union peacekeeping deployment is not protecting villages from these deadly attacks,” said Lewis Mudge, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
The violence has forced almost 640,000 people to flee their homes, including more than 200,000 in Bangui, the capital. More than 80,000, mostly Muslims, have fled to neighboring countries. The country faces the risk of a de facto partition, with the east controlled by Muslim Seleka fighters, and Christians concentrated in the west.
United Nations officials have for months warned of the prospect of ethnic cleansing in the country. Mr. Ban, speaking Wednesday in Brussels to drum up support for a United Nations force, hauntingly referred to it again, pointing out how many people had fled their homes to save their lives. “Genocide was avoided in large measure because of the mass exodus of minorities to areas where they felt they were safe — with their own people,” he said.
The transitional government of Catherine Samba-Panza, the nation’s interim president, urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to help restore law and order.
The militias remain armed, killings continue in broad daylight, and any efforts to secure the country, analysts say, will require taking away the guns and machetes. That is likely to be fractious and difficult.
Violence could intensify when cattle migration season begins in the coming weeks, as a report by the International Crisis Group this week warned. Chadian pastoralists, mostly Muslim and usually heavily armed, make their way south into the Central African Republic in search of grazing land in parts of the country that are dominated by the Christian militias.
“In CAR, even before the ongoing crisis, violent clashes between Chadian herdsmen and the local population caused thousands to flee their homes during the past years,” the report noted, urging officials from both countries to monitor the migration routes and reduce tensions.
Chad is crucial to United Nations peacekeeping efforts elsewhere, like in Mali, where its soldiers face threats from insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda.