Force Commander, Cameroonian-born Brigadier Gen. Martin Tumenta, took up duties on Thursday, December 19, 2013.
As part of efforts to stabilise the disastrous security and humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic, CAR, the African Union-led peacekeeping force, MISCA, formally took over yesterday, December 19, 2013 at a ceremony in the capital, Bangui.
The International Mission for Support to the Central African Republic, MISCA, replaces the sub-regional FOMAC force that has been trying to keep peace in the violence-ravaged nation. France has also deployed 1,600 men as part of ‘Opération Sangaris’ while other European countries have pledged troops in supporting role. MISCA, which currently has 3,600 troops, is expected to see its number gradually boosted to 6,000.
Radio France Internationale, RFI reported that Cameroonian-born Brigadier General Martin Tumenta Chomu, who was earlier appointed alongside other colleagues by AU Commission Chair, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, was sworn in yesterday. A graduate of US Army Combined Arms Centre, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and the French War College, Gen. Tumenta’s deputy is Brigadier General Athanase Kararuza from Burundi.
Retired Major General Jean Marie Michel Mokoko of Congo Brazzaville is AU Special Representative to CAR and head of MISCA. He was formerly the deputy to the AU Senior Representative to Mali and Sahel. Gendarme Colonel Patrice Ostangue Bengone of Gabon heads the police component with a senior police officer, ‘Commissaire principal’ Don Deogracias Ndong of Equatorial Guinea, as assistant.
MISCA takes over at a time the security situation in CAR is far from returning to normal. Though 7,000 ex-Séléka fighters have been disarmed and quartered, the BBC yesterday reported that as many as 1,000 people were killed in two days of unprecedented sectarian and ethnic bloodletting in the capital, Bangui and its environs at the beginning of the month. Citing a Human Rights Watch report, BBC said the death toll was much higher than earlier UN estimates that spoke of 450 killed in Bangui and 150 others elsewhere in the country. Similarly, over 200,000 people have been displaced in the capital, with 40,000 others having fled abroad.
Meanwhile, at the European Union summit in Brussels that began yesterday, French authorities began lobbying for greater European involvement in the CAR conflict. French President François Hollande is expected to press home the point today, December 20, 2013, when he addresses the summit of 28 European leaders.
