In visit to Central African Republic, French general says situation not same as 2013

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A top French general in West Africa has dismissed calls for his country to engage more in Central African Republic (CAR) after rebels earlier this week attempted to take the capital Bangui, saying that the situation was different to a rebellion in 2013.

The Central African army has been battling groups backed by former president Francois Bozize that are seeking to overturn a Dec. 27 vote in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera was declared victor despite fraud claims.

Russia and Rwanda have sent troops to back the government. A separate U.N. peacekeeping mission also operates in the country, but France, which until 2016 had some 2,000 troops in the country, has remained largely in the background during the latest fighting. France, the former colonial power, sent troops in December 2013 to try to end a cycle of tit-for-tat killing that began when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters toppled Bozize, prompting reprisals by Christian anti-Balaka militias.

“We are not in the same situation as 2013. There are 11,000 men ... belonging to the MINUSCA and the Central African army so the conditions are not the same,” General Jean-Pierre Perrin, who heads up a French military base in neighbouring Gabon, said during a visit to Bangui on Friday.Paris still has about 300 soldiers working in CAR as part of a European military training mission and last week carried out fighter jet flyovers to warn rebels advancing on the capital.

 

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2013 was Christian vs Muslim so France rushed to intervene on behalf of the Christians, but now the fighting is between Christians, so there is no need to help one side over another

I cannot believe that a country like France, inept and saved by the USA even in World War II, has colonies in Africa. The problem is not France, Africans are retarded.

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