2024-01-17 20:02:11
A peacekeeper on the ground. A Cameroonian soldier was killed Monday and five others were injured by a mine explosion, the UN announced, in the northwest of the Central African Republic. Rebel groups there regularly clash with the army and its allies, notably Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group.
Soldiers from the Cameroonian contingent of the peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, Minusca, were escorting a team from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) when the mine exploded as the convoy passed. It was then located in the village of Mbindale, some 450 km north of Bangui, specifies Minusca in a press release consulted by AFP. Two of the injured were “seriously” affected and all were evacuated to hospitals according to Minusca.
Peacekeepers, civilians and soldiers
As a reminder, Blue Helmets “are multinational forces made up of national personnel placed under the authority of the United Nations. They are made up of civilians, soldiers and police forces. Their number varies depending on the mission assigned to them,” indicates the public life site.
The explosion in question occurred about twenty kilometers from the place where rebels from the 3R (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation) armed group killed 23 civilians on December 21, in the village of Nzakoundou, where a group was then deployed. contingent of peacekeepers.
The 3Rs are one of the most powerful armed groups among a multitude of rebel movements and criminal gangs operating in the region. These groups, but also the Central African military and their Russian allies, are regularly accused by international NGOs and the UN of crimes and abuses against civilians. Last July, a Rwandan peacekeeper was killed during an attack carried out by an unidentified armed group against a UN patrol in the east of the country. Since 2022, five Minusca soldiers have been killed in the Central African Republic according to the organization’s figures.
Civil war since 2013
One of the poorest countries in the world, the Central African Republic has been in the grip of a civil war since 2013, when a coalition of predominantly Muslim armed groups, the Séléka, overthrew President François Bozizé. He then organized and armed so-called anti-balaka militias, mainly Christian and animist, to try to regain power.
The fighting between these groups, of which civilians were the main victims, peaked in 2018 before the civil war, until then very deadly, decreased in intensity, transforming into a guerrilla war led by rebel or simply predatory groups. of the country’s resources, particularly in gold and diamonds. The 3R, ex-Sélékas, joined the rebellion of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which launched a vast offensive against Bangui in December 2020 to try to overthrow the power of President Faustin Archange Touadéra.
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