The international contact group met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on July 7, 2014, to discuss the conflict in the country.

As the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, CAR, draws near, stakeholders have been laying the groundwork to ensure a smooth transition from the African Union-led MISCA, French ‘Operation Sangaris’ and European Union’s EUFOR-RCA forces in the country.

To this end, the fifth meeting of the International Contact Group on the Central African Republic, ICG-CAR, opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on July 7, 2014. According to the African Press Organisation, APO, key speakers from the African Union, United Nations, the Government of the Central African Republic and the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, restated the need for preparations to be speeded up to catch up with the September 2014 scheduled deployment of the United Nations Mission to CAR, MINUSCA.

While acknowledging recent improvements in security in the country following the arrival of foreign peacekeepers, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Herve Ladsous, admitted that the task however remains daunting. He added that there was a real urgency for political dialogue among CAR stakeholders to consolidate progress made by the transitional government. Ladsous noted that Central Africans needed to re-double their efforts in the coming months to address the challenges ahead, adding that the sub-region and international community also had an important role to play.

According to the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui, the transfer of peacekeeping functions will open a new chapter in efforts to end CAR’s sectarian violence. “In close cooperation with ECCAS and in the spirit of partnership with the United Nations, the transfer will support the ongoing process of reconciliation, elections and the reform of the defence and security sectors,” he pointed out.

CAR Prime Minister, André Nzapayeke, appealed to the warring parties to bury the hatchet. “To make peace and to move forward to positive action is for the brave, in order for lasting peace to prevail. I appeal to the groups carrying out violence to join the brave,” he said. ECCAS Secretary General, Ahmad Allam-Mi, on the other hand, suggested that in order to put an end to CAR’s violence, a strong consensual political framework needed to be shared by all stakeholders.

In the worsening sectarian violence in the country, at least 20 people were yesterday, July 8, 2014, reported to have been killed in the northern town of Birao, obliging a visiting French minister to cancel his scheduled visit there.