France, Britain and the US on Thursday put a hold on a request from the Central African Republic (CAR) for UN Security Council approval of Chinese weapons deliveries for its national forces.
Central African Minister of National Defense, Veterans, War Victims and Restructuring of the Army Marie-Noelle Koyara on Tuesday last week asked a UN sanctions committee to grant an exemption to an arms embargo and allow the shipments of Chinese-made armored vehicles, machine guns, tear gas grenades and other weaponry for its army and police.
France said it had concerns about “some lethal equipment included in this exemption request,” citing anti-aircraft weapons and ammunitions, a document obtained by reporters showed.
The French mission to the UN requested “additional justifications concerning this lethal equipment in order to be able to take a decision,” the document showed.
The US said that there was “no threat of an air attack” in the Central African Republic and questioned deliveries of eight grenade launchers, four anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-personnel grenades and rockets.
Britain said it was concerned that the shipments would pass through Cameroon unescorted to the border with the Central African Republic.
In her request to the UN, Koyara said the weaponry would help strengthen national forces who are “confronted with the strength and escalating violence of armed groups whose illegal activities pose a threat to civil order.”
The council imposed an arms embargo on the Central African Republic in 2013, when the country descended into bloodshed, but its sanctions committee last year gave the green light for Russia to supply weapons to national forces.
China wants to donate military equipment that includes 12 armored vehicles and four assault vehicles, 50 pistols, six sniper rifles, 10 submachine guns with silencers and about 30 machine guns of various calibers.
The list of equipment from China’s Poly Technologies also includes 300 rockets, 500 anti-tank grenades, about 725,000 rounds of ammunition of various types and 15,000 tear gas grenades.
The request for the Chinese weaponry is backed by an EU military training mission and by the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which has come under repeated attacks from armed groups.
Five peacekeepers have been killed this year.
In its note detailing objections, the US mission to the UN argued that special training was needed to operate the grenade launchers, “which we are not certain has been provided.”
Most of the armored vehicles and other weaponry would be used by special forces trained by Rwanda and certified by MINUSCA.
Central African gendarmerie and police units were trained by the UN force.
In her request, Koyara said the tear gas would help gendarmerie and police with crowd control.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS