UNITED NATIONS, Oct 21 (APP):A senior Pakistani diplomat has underscored the vital role of UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR), calling their continued presence essential to sustaining the country’s political and security progress.
“Their continued presence remains indispensable to preserving these hard-won gains,” the Acting permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, Usman Jadoon, told the UN Security Council which discussed the situation in CAR on Tuesday.
At the same time, the Pakistani envoy voiced concern over the the deteriorating security situation in the country’s northeast and southeast, pointing out that the June attack on Am-Dafock and the spillover effects of the conflict in Sudan underscored the persistent threat posed by armed groups and cross-border insecurity.
He therefore urged adequate funding of the peacekeeping mission in the country, ahead of its renewal on 15 November.
Renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which expires in less than a month, is occurring amid challenges to the restoration of State authority, with the continuing conflagration in Sudan causing spillover effects.
While national and local institutions were installed following the 2025 elections, this September, the country’s electoral authority announced the suspension of residual elections, citing operational and financial constraints. Nonetheless, MINUSCA continues to provide electoral and security assistance, despite funding shortfalls affecting operations on the ground.
The Pakistan envoy strongly supported the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation that the renewed mandate of MINUSCA maintain its priority tasks and multidimensional nature, while strengthening national capacities and advancing transition planning with the Central African authorities. “The Mission’s political, security and peacebuilding functions remain mutually reinforcing and essential to sustainable peace,” he said.
“Any further reconfiguration or transfer of responsibilities must remain gradual, conditions-based and guided by the priorities of the host Government,” he said. “We must avoid creating security vacuums or reversing the progress achieved over the years.”
As a major troop-contributing country to MINUSCA, with around 1100 troops, Ambassador Jadoon said Pakistan remained firmly committed to the Mission’s success.
“We pay tribute to all mission personnel, who are performing their duties in a difficult environment. We reaffirm our steadfast support for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Central African Republic and the aspirations of its people for lasting peace and stability.”
Briefing the 15-member Council, the top UN official in the country, Valentine Rugwabiza, highlighted an attack on 30 June by different armed groups on Am-Dafock, bordering Sudan, which killed civilians, members of national security forces, displaced 17,000 civilians and injured six UN peacekeepers.
However, without peacekeeping mission MINUSCA’s rapid response, she said, attacks in the border area with Chad and Sudan would have resulted in significantly more fatalities and State authority could not have been restored after only five days of control by the armed group, whose fighters retreated across the border into Sudan.
“In this regard, I plead with the council, as it prepares to renew MINUSCA’s mandate, to maintain MINUSCA with adequate force levels and capabilities during the critical consolidation phase,” she stressed.
While Bangui consolidates its authority and continues disarming rebel groups, violence is multiplying in the east, driven in part by the war in Sudan that is complicating plans for a gradual MINUSCA troop drawdown, Ms. Rugwabiza said.
The situation in the northeast and southeast, she said, remained particularly worrying, notably around mining sites and along the corridors traditionally used by pastoral farmers – often the source of community tensions.
In the southeast, 26 serious incidents were recorded, attributed to suspected members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA – a long-established armed group of Ugandan origin ) between June and September.