Rwanda has no fewer than 300 troops to the United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, where they are billed to help protect a key highway supplying the capital, the UN has disclosed.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that the deployment is part of a resolution that was reached in March by the UN Security Council to beef up the MINUSCA force in the CAR by around 3,000 men.
The CAR, which is one of the world’s poorest countries has been battered by civil conflict since 2013, with armed groups jockeying for resources and power.
‘It’s the first part of the (Rwandan) unit which arrived today to secure the road between Bangui and Beloko,’ a town on the Cameroon border, MINUSCA spokesman Abdoulaziz Fall told reporters late Tuesday.
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The troops will remain for one year, he said.
‘The rest of the (Rwandan) battalion of 450 troops will arrive by the end of the year.’
Fighting in the CAR has reduced in overall intensity since 2018, but the country remains troubled by serious flareups.
Last December, six-armed groups teamed up in an offensive against President Faustin Archange Touadera in the runup to elections.
They advanced down the highway towards the capital but were thwarted by MINUSCA and government troops, backed by military personnel from Russia and Rwanda who were rushed to the CAR under bilateral security agreements.
The government forces then went on the offensive, retaking key towns from the rebels and wresting control of some of the territory they had occupied for years.
In recent weeks, rebel attacks have stepped up. On Saturday, at least six civilians were killed near the border with Cameroon, in the northwest of the country.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK