Monday, November 23, 2015

Presidential campaign kicks off in coup-prone Burkina Faso

A presidential campaign starts Sunday in Burkina Faso, with the winner poised to re-establish democracy after the long rule of former soldier Blaise Compaore in a nation prone to coups.

An attempted coup in September led by Compaore's one-time presidential guard chief, General Gilbert Diendere, caused authorities to postpone presidential and legislative polls from October 11 until November 29.
The coup was foiled by a popular uprising -- much as street protests toppled Compaore himself at the end of October 2014, angry at his bid to change the constitution in order to extend his 27-year rule.
Diendere has been charged by a military court on 11 counts, including a "crime against humanity", after clashes that claimed 14 lives and left 251 wounded, according to transitional government figures.
In the most controversial decision ahead of the vote, the interim authorities headed by Michel Kafando have ruled that nobody who backed Compaore's bid to keep power can stand for elected office.
The powerful Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), which long functioned like a state-run party that won every election, is unable to field candidates in the deeply poor west African country, which has a population of nearly 20 million.
The CDP choice, Eddie Constance Konboigo, has been barred from standing and so have all members of Kafando's interim regime, but Compaore will cast a long shadow over the polls from his exile in Ivory Coast.
Seven of the 14 candidates played important roles in the fallen regime, without backing Compaore to the end.

France seeks UN action on Burundi to prevent ‘another Rwanda’

France on Monday urged the UN Security Council to adopt a draft resolution aimed at toughening the international response to spiralling violence in Burundi, amid fears of Rwanda-style mass killings.

The measure threatens targeted sanctions against Burundian leaders who foment violence or hamper efforts to end the crisis that followed protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term.
“We are extremely worried by what we are seeing in Burundi at this moment: this increase of political violence and the extremely alarming ethnically-based hate speech,” French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek told reporters.
“If we let tensions escalate the whole country could explode,” Lamek said. “Especially when we hear hate speech coming from highest ranks.”
The draft text calls on the government and all sides to “reject any kind of violence” and strongly condemns the killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and other rights violations in Burundi.
At an emergency council meeting called by France, Burundi’s Foreign Minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe defended his government and said the “country was calm” except for some pockets of Burundi’s capital Bujumbura where “small groups of criminals are active”.
“Burundi is not burning,” Nyamitwe told the council by video-conference from the capital.
The foreign minister urged the council not to resort to sanctions, calling them “ineffective” and maintained that the government was holding a dialogue with the opposition, as demanded by the UN.
Violence rages
On Monday, two people were killed and a policeman wounded in gun battles in Bujumbura, just days after a UN employee was among nine people killed by armed men in police uniform at a bar in the capital
Burundi has been rocked by violence since Nkurunziza launched the controversial bid to prolong his term in office in April, with more than 200,000 people fleeing the country.
Police have launched a huge security operation in the capital’s opposition districts searching for weapons after an ultimatum to give up arms expired Saturday.
Many residents of those districts have fled the capital, nearly emptying areas that have seen some of the worst violence in recent months.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft called on the council to unite around tough measures to prevent a further slide toward a possible genocide.
“We remember what happened in that region, in neighbouring Rwanda 21 years ago,” Rycroft told reporters. “We must not let history repeat itself.”
It remained unclear though whether Russia and some African countries at the council would support sanctions in Burundi, a conflict that they have described as an internal matter.
‘Imminent catastrophe’
The draft resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to present options within 15 days on reinforcing the UN presence in Burundi amid calls by human rights groups for a UN police force to be deployed.
UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, both warned the council that Burundi could be facing imminent catastrophe.

Rwanda’s president condemns deadly violence in Burundi

Rwandan President Paul Kagame implored neighbouring Burundi to avoid the ethnic violence that ended in genocide in his country in 1994, in an emotional speech that was shared on social media on Sunday.

Regional and world powers have grown increasingly concerned that the security situation in Burundicould lead to civil war or mass atrocities, and that a weekend deadline for Burundians to give up weapons could spark widespread bloodshed.
At least 200 people have died and tens of thousands have left the country after months of violence and protests since President Pierre Nkurunziza declared he would seek a third term in office, which he then won in a contested vote in July.
“They should have learned the lesson of our history,” Kagame told a gathering in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Friday, according to audio of the speech shared on social media.
“Some people might think I am committing a sacrilege because I have talked about a certain country and they can call it ... politics. It has an impact on us Rwandans,” he said.
Some 800,000 people, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were massacred before rebel forces led by Kagame ended the genocide in Rwanda. Burundi is about 85 percent Hutu and 14 percent Tutsi.
Kagame has mostly avoided talking about the unfolding political crisis in Burundi. Rwanda is currently in the process of adjusting its own presidential term limit rules, which would pave the way for Kagame to seek a third term in office.
In the speech he was pointedly critical of Nkurunziza - a former Hutu rebel leader before he became Burundi’s first democratically elected president after its civil war. Kagame said Nkurunziza was allowing his people to die.

Monday, November 16, 2015

UN peacekeepers face new sex abuse allegations in Central African Republic


Latest update : 2015-11-12

United Nation’s peacekeepers in Central African Republic were hit on Wednesday with fresh accusations of sex abuses uncovered by a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation amid growing concern about a failure to combat sexual misconduct.

Three teenage girls displaced from their homes by fighting in the strife-torn country told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they had sex with Congolese peacekeepers over several weeks, resulting in at least two pregnancies.
The girls, aged between 14 and 17, live in temporary straw shelters in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) close to where over 500 U.N. peacekeepers, mainly from Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh and Cameroon are posted.
The minimum age of sexual consent in Central African Republic is 18. Sexual relations between peacekeepers and civilians are banned under U.N. protocol.
The accusations are the latest in a series of allegations against the 11,000-strong force known as MINUSCA, which has been operational in the country since April 2014.
The peacekeeping force, whose mandate refers to “specific protection for women and children”, became mired in a series of sex abuse scandals earlier this year with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon vowing to crackdown on sexual abuse.
One of the girls who spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation said she was 14 years old. She has given birth to a baby since her relationship with a Congolese soldier began.
Another girl, aged 17, who is now seven months pregnant, said the peacekeeper used to come regularly.
“He used to give me money, but he has not been to see me recently,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in the thatched wooden shelter where she now lives.
Promises to investigate
These girls and a number of other women spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation this week after eyewitnesses said they saw peacekeepers entering the camps in Bambari, 380 km (235 miles)northeast of the capital Bangui.
In April this year it was revealed that soldiers from Democratic Republic of Congo and other contributing countries, including Equatorial Guinea and Chad, together with French forces, had assaulted several children over a six month period.
The scandals escalated and prompted the U.N. in August to replace the head of the U.N. stabilisation force in Central African Republic, Senegal’s Babacar Gaye, with Gabonese diplomat Parfait Onanga-Anyanga.
But the allegations of sexual misconduct have not stopped. In September the United Nations said it had received a new allegation of sexual abuse against a U.N. peacekeeper in Central African Republic.
Presented with the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s findings on Wednesday, Diane Corner, Deputy Special Representative to the Secretary General in Bangui said the allegations of under-age sex would be thoroughly investigated.
“This is completely unacceptable behaviour by MINUSCA peacekeepers,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the mission’s headquarters in Bangui.
She added that MINUSCA would treat the cases as allegations until it had established firmer details.
From the United Nations in New York, MINUSCA said in a draft of a statement that it would dispatch a multifunctional team to Bambari to gather facts and take immediate preventive and disciplinary measures as well as corrective action against misconduct.
Onanga-Anyanga said “any single incident of abuse was utterly abhorrent” and expressed sadness that such reports continue to emerge despite MINUSCA’s transparency and zero tolerance policies and efforts to prevent such misconduct, the statement said.
Aside from those revealed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Corner said she was now aware of 18 cases of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in the 18 months since its mandate came into force, nine of which involved children.
MINUSCA was set up to help stabilise Central African Republic after it was plunged into turmoil in early 2013 when Muslim rebels from a group called Seleka seized power in the majority-Christian country, provoked a violent backlash.
Seleka handed power to a transitional government in 2014 under international pressure and the country is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 13 after violence postponed planned October votes.
(REUTERS)
Date created : 2015-11-12

Sudanese refugees shot dead on Egypt-Israel border

At least 15 Sudanese refugees have been shot dead and eight more injured in Egypt's Sinai region as they reportedly attempted to enter Israel. 
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Egyptian security officials told the Associated Press that the refugees were killed while caught in the crossfire between security forces and people smugglers on Sunday. 
Earlier in the day, however, officials said that security forces had shot the Sudanese as they approached the border fence separating the Sinai and southern Israel. 
Most of the people being smuggled through the Sinai are fleeing political violence in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, among other countries - risking their lives to make the perilous journey to seek asylum in Israel. 
Many have been shot, sometimes fatally, by security forces, while others have been tortured by Egyptian and Sudanese human traffickers, according to human rights groups.

Burundi's capital hit with deadly violence

At least four people died in shootings and explosions in various neighborhoods in Burundi's capital on Sunday, with the government-supporting mayor's house among those attacked during a night of violence, witnesses and local administration said.
Burundi has been shaken by months of violence, sparked when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided in April to run for a third term. He won a disputed election in July.
Last week, the United Nations Security Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report within 15 days on options for boosting the U.N. presence in Burundi amid growing concern that the violence could spiral into an ethnic conflict.

Boko Haram destroyed more than 1,000 schools this year, UN says

Boko Haram members have destroyed an estimated 1,100 schools this year in their stronghold region surrounding Lake Chad, the United Nations envoy to the area said Monday.
The targeted schools were in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, the four countries most affected by the armed uprising, said Toby Lanzer, who became U.N. envoy to central Africa's restive Sahel region in July.
Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of attacks on schools and universities in an insurgency that has killed at least 17,000 people since 2009. The armed group made international headlines in April 2014 when its members kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok, a town in Borno State, Nigeria. Fifty-three of the school girls escaped but the rest remain missing
Lanzer also provided updated figures for the number of people displaced by the conflict.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

I know Zambia’s economic problems are not spiritual-President Lungu

President Edgar Lungu has urged Zambians not lose sight of their commitment to God despite the economic hardships that the country is currently undergoing.
The President says he is aware that the challenges the country is currently going through are secular in nature but that there is nothing wrong with seeking God’s guidance and intervention in the problem.
ZANIS in Ndola reports that the President said this upon arrival at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola where he is to cheer the Zambia National Soccer team in its match against Sudan this afternoon.
The President, who was received by Sports Minister, Vincent Mwale, is this afternoon expected to lead thousands of soccer fans to cheer the national team.
President Lungu said it would be wrong for Zambians to forget their commitment to God just because of the economic hardships the country is currently facing.
“Even if we have economic problems we should not lose sight and forget about our God. Some people are saying the economic problems are not spiritual yes they are not but let us not forget our commitment to God,” he said.
The President has since called on soccer fans to turn up in large numbers to support the Chipolopolo.

Sub-Saharan Africa currency crisis persists

A currency risk that increased notably over the past year in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is seen remaining elevated over the next 18 month with the South African rand depreciating further, according to research by Oxford University’s NKC African Economics (NKC).
A depreciating rand, according to south African-based independent Zimbabwean financial analyst Coll Ndlovu, can be beneficial to Zimbabwean consumers in the form of cheaper imported goods, given that the country imports most of its products from South Africa, hence signs of deflation within the Zimbabwean economy.
 
In a regional SSA short-term exchange rate outlook, NKC said the fragile South African rand will primarily be a barometer of regional market perceptions with regard to US debt curve repricing and China-related growth concerns.
“We expect the rand to depreciate from an average of R13,87/$ in 2015 Q4 to R14, 22/$ in 2016 Q,” reads part of the report.
“We ascribe a 60% probability to US monetary policy tightening by December. Under this assumption, we anticipate the rand to trend somewhat firmer in successive quarters, averaging R14,09/$ in Q2, R13,99/$ in Q3 and R13,89/$ in Q4. Risks are however, tilted to the downside — ie rand weakness,” added NKC.
The research unit said currencies in the SSA region have had a tumultuous ride this year, undermined by a prolonged commodity price slump, and the resultant spillover effects to the balance of payments and fiscal positions, as well as global growth concerns and external monetary policy decisions.
The research unit argued a result monetary policy, on aggregate, is expected to be skewed towards aggressive tightening over the next 18 months as price stability will be favoured above short-term growth potential.
NKC said the fragile Zambian kwacha — which has been hit by a severe shock to the terms of trade — is susceptible to rapid depreciation as a loss of confidence incentivises front-loading of dollar purchases.
“The loss of confidence in the kwacha, as well as political uncertainty surrounding the election next year, could see the exchange rate remain weaker than the estimated equilibrium value for an extended period of time,” said NKC.
“It is crucial that confidence be restored in the kwacha in order to limit the spillover effects to the sovereign balance sheet. With the budget speech for 2016 calling for a further increase in commercial external borrowing, Zambia faces a conundrum. We argue that Zambia needs to urgently seek support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and/or World Bank to meet borrowing requirements and re-establish investor confidence,” added NKC.
Another devaluation of the Angolan kwanza before the end of the year to Kz144,5/$ from the current rate of Kz134,63/$ is forecasted by NKC.
“Further shocks to the oil price hold a risk that the (Angolan) central bank will introduce more restrictive capital controls,” said the research unit.
NKC said it expects world GDP growth to equate to 2,5% this year before accelerating to 2,7% in 2016, a downward revision from an earlier projection of 2,6% for 2015 and 3% growth next year.
“Slow world trade growth — which incentivises competitive devaluations — as well as deteriorating terms of trade, rising inflation differentials, adverse weather conditions as well as foreign factors pertaining to US yield curve repricing are expected to increasingly weigh on SSA currencies in coming months,” said NKC.

Drought Grips South Africa

Johannesburg - After one of the driest rainy seasons on record, South Africa is in the grip of a severe drought.
This has placed a strain on water supplies across the country, affecting 2.7 million households.
The hardest hit are those living in rural areas, where residents have to collect water in buckets once a day.
With the drought persisting, South Africa has now declared five of its nine provinces a drought disaster for agriculture.
The lack of rain has had a dramatic impact on crops. According to Senzeni Zokwana, the agriculture minister, the average maize yield has been the lowest since 2008.
South Africa has failed to produce enough to maize to export to neighbouring Botswana and Swaziland.
This means that not only will prices be forced to rise locally, but Zokwana claimed that if the drought persisted, it could become a regional disaster.
South Africa often suffers a drought during an El Nino event. El Nino is the natural warming of the surface temperatures of the Pacific Ocean, which occurs approximately every two to seven years.
The change in the ocean temperature has been seen to have a dramatic effect on the weather around the world.
The current El Nino event is one of the strongest on record, and is still strengthening.
This is not good news for the provinces of Northwest, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga, which are the worst hit by the drought.
In these provinces, the majority of the rain falls between October and March, but with El Nino expected to dominate the weather for the coming months, the prospect of decent rainfall looks slim.

U.N., AU, EU raise alarm on Burundi crisis spreading

World Thu Nov 12, 2015 9:55am EST



The United Nations, African Union and European Union warned on Thursday that political division in Burundi threatened to create a deep and violent regional crisis and called on both sides to meet for mediated talks.
"Alarmed by the widening divisions, the threat for many more lives and a deep regional crisis, we pledged to work closely together and to mobilize all our means and instruments to prevent a further deterioration of the situation," senior officials of the three bodies said in a joint statement.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who met EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and African Union Commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma at an EU-Africa summit on Malta, told Reuters that the institutions were not setting deadlines for talks but wanted to "raise the level of concern".
In their statement, they spoke of the "urgency" of a meeting between President Pierre Nkurunziza's government and the opposition, either in Addis Ababa, where the AU is based, or in the Ugandan capital Kampala, where President Yoweri Museveni would chair talks. "No effort can be spared to achieve an end to the violence and to foster a political solution."
PEACEKEEPERS
The statement was released four hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to vote on a French-drafted resolution that would ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back on options for boosting the U.N. presence in Burundi.
Diplomats say Western powers and the United Nations are discussing the possible deployment of peacekeepers to Burundi if violence spirals into a full ethnic conflict.
At least 240 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled since Nkurunziza decided in April to run for a third term, which he won in a disputed election in July.
Nkurunziza's bid for a new term - which many of his critics say is unconstitutional - plunged the country into crisis, including violent clashes between protesters and security forces in the capital Bujumbura and a series of targeted killings.
The United Nations warned on Monday that Burundi could be facing imminent catastrophe with violence in danger of violence escalating into atrocities. Burundi said it was "not in flames" and dismissed concerns of impending genocide.
Burundi ended a 12-year civil war between Hutu rebels and a Tutsi-led army in 2005. It is the same ethnic divide that led to neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people - mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus - were massacred.

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/12/us-burundi-politics-international-idUSKCN0T11UE20151112#yV3EAv76TS38SpKj.99

Burundi opposition asks U.N. to send peacekeepers quickly

World Fri Nov 13, 2015 11:58am EST

Burundi opposition asks U.N. to send peacekeepers quickly


A prominent Burundi opposition politician urged the United Nations on Friday to send peacekeepers quickly to help deal with rising violence, after the Security Council discussed ways to boost its presence there.
The Burundi government did not directly respond to the council's request to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday to study ways to promote dialogue between the government and opposition amid growing international concern that the violence could spiral into an ethnic conflict.
It said the council's call for Ban to report back on the U.N.'s options within 15 days resolution was "generally speaking" in line with its views and its desire for dialogue.
Charles Nditije, head of the opposition UPRONA group, told Reuters he also welcomed the U.N. council's push for dialogue.
"We deplore, however, that they didn’t decide to deploy peace enforcement forces in the near future," he said. "We also regret that they didn’t agree on sanctions."
An earlier draft of the resolution threatened sanctions against those behind the surge in violence.
Highlighting growing concerns about unrest in Burundi, which emerged from civil war a decade ago, the European Union mission in Bujumbura said it was temporarily making a small reduction in its staff and pulling out foreign family members.
Burundi has been mired in a political crisis that has raised fears of slide into ethnic conflict in a region where memories of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda are still raw.
Scores have died in protests and killings and hundreds of thousands have fled since President Pierre Nkurunziza said in April he would seek a third term - a move the opposition said violated the constitution and a peace treaty that ended fighting in 2005.
Nkurunziza said a court ruling allowed his bid and went on to win a disputed election in July.
Smail Chergui, the African Union's Commissioner for Peace and Security, told reporters in Addis Ababa that he was sending AU officials to the Ugandan capital Kampala to lay groundwork to start a dialogue for Burundi.
"We hope that it will happen as soon as possible. It is only through dialogue that we can have real impact on the situation in Burundi," he said.
Chergui said deployment of African troops was a contingency plan for the time being.
"The constitutive act gives us that opportunity (to deploy African troops) if the situation (worsens). We are discussing with them and hopefully that will be the core group for this intervention," he said.
Government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba said in a statement that Burundi took note of "the reasonable contents of the resolution which is generally speaking in line with what the government has always wanted", citing dialogue in particular.
Weeks of talks earlier this year failed to bridge the divide between the opposition, which wants Nkurunziza to quit, and the government, which has said the president will serve out another term until 2020.
EU Ambassador Patrick Spirlet told Reuters the "rising risk of violence" had prompted the EU mission in Bujumbura to reduce some staff and send family members away temporarily. "The delegation will continue functioning normally," he said.
Burundi's 12-year civil war, which killed 300,000 people, pitted rebels of the Hutu majority against the Tutsi-led army. The same ethnic divide fueled the genocide in Rwanda, in which 800,000 mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered.
Burundi's crisis has until now broadly followed political lines, with a mix of ethnicities in both camps. But experts say inflammatory language by some officials risks reviving ethnic rifts. The government denies using ethnically divisive language.

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/13/us-burundi-unrest-idUSKCN0T20ZJ20151113#p0eGvpG6mLLGDSMF.99

Thursday, November 12, 2015

El Nino threatens 'millions in east and southern Africa


  • 10 November 2015
  •  
  • From the sectionAfrica

Media captionClive Myrie reports on the terrible toll drought is taking on people in Ethiopia

Some 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and water shortages in east and southern Africa because of the strengthening El Nino weather phenomenon, the UN children's charity has said.
It has caused the worst drought in more than 30 years in Ethiopia, Unicef said.
Its effects could also be "particularly harsh" in Somalia, amid fears of flooding, it warned.
El Nino is caused by Pacific Ocean warming.
"The weather phenomenon, among the strongest on record, is likely to cause more floods and droughts, fuel Pacific typhoons and cyclones and affect more areas if it continues strengthening as forecast over the coming months," Unicef said in a statement.
It said 8.2 million people in Ethiopia faced food insecurity, while an estimated 350,000 children needed treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34779447

The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly backed the African Union’s decision to investigate human rights violations in Burundi and also pledged to respond to any actions that threaten peace, security and stability in the troubled nation.


A presidential statement approved by all 15 members expressed deep concern at the growing insecurity and continuing rise in violence in the country including extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions.
President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision in April to seek a controversial third term, which he won, has sparked killings and arrests and triggered fear and uncertainty, leading more than 200,000 people to flee the country. Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft warned last week of a “threat of genocide” in Burundi.
The Security Council urged all those involved in violence “to reject armed rebellion to resolve the current crisis” and engage in dialogue “to spare the country and its people further suffering.”
The council stressed the importance of convening an inter-Burundian dialogue including the government and all “peaceful” parties inside and outside the country “in order to find a consensual and nationally owned solution to the current crisis.”
It underlined the importance of the urgent resumption of mediation efforts led by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni.
The United States welcomed the council statement, especially the call for dialogue which the AU also endorsed.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is ready to support the AU, the East African Community, Museveni and the citizens of Burundi “to urgently conduct such a dialogue, which represents the best path forward to resolving the insecurity which has plagued Burundi since President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third-term.”
http://www.france24.com/en/20151029-un-probe-human-rights-violations-burundi

A UN peacekeeper was killed in the Central African Republic Tuesday following a clash with Muslim Seleka rebels that comes just weeks before elections in the troubled country.


The soldier from the MINUSCA force was found dead in Batangafo, north of Bangui, a United Nations spokesman said.
"Following an outbreak of violence between armed anti-Balaka and ex-Seleka elements at an internally displaced persons camp in Batangafo, ex-Seleka elements confronted MINUSCA troops at a nearby MINUSCA checkpoint," said a statement from spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
"During the incident, one peacekeeper went missing and was subsequently found dead."
A UN official said the peacekeeper was from Cameroon.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killing and called for swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The attack came as the UN mission is trying to bolster security in the country ahead of elections on December 27 that are shaping up as a test of the country's progress in its political transition.
The Central African Republic descended into bloodshed after the 2013 coup against longtime leader Francois Bozize, with Christian anti-balaka militias battling Muslim Seleka rebels.
The country is also hoping to welcome Pope Francis for a visit on November 29-30, although security concerns may prompt the Vatican to scrap the trip.
The UN has deployed some 12,000 troops and police in its MINUSCA force, and is planning to add about 1,140 more, as well as drones, to beef up security ahead of the vote.
(AFP)

http://www.france24.com/en/20151111-un-peacekeeper-killed-central-african-republic