Attachments
I. Introduction
1. By its resolution 2709 (2023), the Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) until 15 November 2024 and requested the Secretary-General to report on its implementation every four months. The present report provides an update on major developments in the Central African Republic since the previous report of 15 February 2024 (S/2024/170).
II. Political situation
2. The Government of the Central African Republic prioritized the implementation of key provisions of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, including advancing preparations for the forthcoming local elections, while pursing efforts to promote and enhance the effective decentralization of the peace process. The Government also intensified diplomatic initiatives with bilateral partners and regional organizations in support of development efforts against the background of a strained socioeconomic environment. Meanwhile, judicial cases against opposition political figures fuelled persistent tensions.
Political developments
3. The Government continued to implement institutional changes to align with the Constitution of 2023. On 27 February, the President, Faustin Archange Touadéra, appointed the 11 members of the Constitutional Council, including three women, which replaced the Constitutional Court. The former President of the Constitutional Court, Jean-Pierre Waboe, was appointed President of the Constitutional Council. The members were sworn in on 22 March.
4. On 3 March, the coordinator of the opposition platform Bloc républicain pour la défense de la Constitution, Crépin Mboli-Goumba, was arrested and detained until 6 March. The Bangui public prosecutor declared that Mr. Mboli-Goumba had been arrested for defamation and contempt of court, as filed by four magistrates whom Mr. Mboli-Goumba had accused of corruption during a press conference on 21 February. The bar association launched a strike to protest the arrest on 5 March, suspending barristers’ participation in all judicial proceedings, including those of the Special Criminal Court.
5. On 27 March, Mr. Mboli-Goumba was convicted and received a one-year suspended prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay the equivalent of $132,000 in damages to the plaintiffs. The political opposition and civil society condemned the judgment, expressing concerns about the independence of the judicial system and perceived violations of due process. Following the verdict, the bar association resumed its activities.
6. The parliamentarian Dominique Yandocka, Secretary-General of the opposition party Initiative pour une transformation par l’action, has remained in detention since December 2023. Opposition leaders, including Joseph Bendouga, Anicet Georges Dologuélé and Martin Ziguélé, repeatedly called for his immediate release due to his health condition, while advocating for prisoners’ rights and investigations into alleged human rights violations. On 24 April, members of parliament presented a petition to the Prime Minister, Félix Moloua, demanding Mr. Yandocka’s immediate release for health reasons until the proceedings brought against him by the public prosecutor are remedied in accordance with the law.
7. The Government concluded various agreements and cooperation frameworks during a series of high-level bilateral meetings. It signed a joint statement on promoting the Global Development Initiative of China, developed the scope of its partnership framework with the European Union, endorsed a road map to establish a framework for constructive partnership with France and signed four bilateral agreements with Serbia, including in the areas of national defence and foreign investment.
8. On 12 April, the new Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Head of the African Union Mission for Central and Eastern Africa, António Egídio de Sousa Santos, presented his letters of credentials to Mr. Touadéra. The Special Representative reaffirmed the support of the African Union for the Government and people of the Central African Republic as co-guarantor of the Political Agreement.
Peace process
9. Central African Republic authorities moved forward with renewed commitment in the implementation of the Political Agreement and the joint road map for peace of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. On 6 February, Mr. Touadéra chaired a special session of the Executive Monitoring Committee of the Political Agreement during which he thanked guarantors and facilitators for supporting the implementation of the Agreement and urged continued collaboration to fulfil remaining commitments for the consolidation of peace, security and national unity in the Central African Republic. The Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the Economic Community of Central African States commended the self-dissolution of several signatory armed groups and called on remaining active armed groups to join or return to the peace process.
10. There were major strides in the implementation of the Political Agreement through government-led initiatives, with MINUSCA support. These contributed to advancing some of its fundamental pillars, which are critical for enhancing the protection of civilians, fostering the extension of State authority and addressing some root causes of recurring conflicts in the Central African Republic, while providing an impetus for social reconciliation and development. On 17 April, in the presence of Mr. Moloua, the National Border Management Commission officially launched its activities and presented a border management policy along with a 10-year action plan, and shared its ambition to develop and establish soon a pilot multi-service border post, possibly along the border with Chad.
11. On 13 May, Mr. Touadéra opened a high-level national conference on peaceful and prosperous transhumance chaired by Mr. Moloua and facilitated by MINUSCA, which gathered local authorities and civil society leaders, as well as international and national partners. The conference devised strategies for reducing seasonal transhumance-related violence, while leveraging its potential economic benefits for peaceful coexistence, stabilization and development. It agreed on a series of priority actions ranging from updating the legal and institutional framework on transhumance, developing agropastoral infrastructure and strengthening the security of transhumance corridors to supporting conflict prevention mechanisms and promoting cross-border dialogue.
12. The Government continued to advance the decentralized implementation of the peace process with MINUSCA support. On 4 April, the Office of the Prime Minister organized a videoconference to guide government officials and prefects in the finalization of decentralized dashboards and the identification of activities to be carried out at the local level to implement the Political Agreement and the joint road map, in alignment with the Government’s dashboard approved at the national level.
13. Prefectural implementation mechanisms of the Political Agreement maintained their regular meetings, activities and field missions to violence-ridden areas, with MINUSCA support, enhancing local ownership, fostering political dialogue, sustaining mediation efforts and encouraging armed combatants to demobilize and disarm. Local authorities undertook field missions in Mambéré-Kadeï Prefecture to mediate intercommunal conflicts stemming from transhumance activities, successfully dispelling rumours of Fulani reprisals against farmers and creating conditions for the return of internally displaced persons.
14. On 12 March, the Government launched the second phase of its communication plan on the peace process, with MINUSCA support. Since April, the Office of the Prime Minister has trained 172 civil servants (21 per cent women) serving in seven prefectures on the peace process, its mechanisms and achievements. The Government also organized training for 190 community influencers to raise awareness of the peace process; the influencers have so far organized 57 awareness-raising sessions reaching over 17,100 people (around 20 per cent women) in 19 prefectures.
15. The Government, with MINUSCA support, continued to implement the national disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation programme. These efforts targeted individuals in armed groups that had expressed their willingness to join the programme further to the Government’s outreach in Basse-Kotto, Haute-Kotto, Lobaye and Ouham Prefectures from January to May 2024. A total of 157 dissident combatants (including 18 women) from the anti-balaka movement, the Front populaire pour la renaissance de la Centrafrique, the Mouvement patriotique pour la Centrafrique, Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation and the Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique, as well as combatants from the dissolved group Unité des forces républicaines, were disarmed and demobilized.
16. To complement the national programme, MINUSCA continued to implement community violence reduction projects. Beneficiaries benefited from vocational training, start-up support for income-generating activities, cash-for-work activities to rehabilitate community infrastructure and awareness-raising to promote social cohesion.
17. On 13 April, in N’Djamena, Chadian authorities apprehended the former Coalition des patriotes pour le changement spokesperson Abakar Sabone, as well as its former leader, Mahamat Al-Khatim, who had announced the withdrawal of the Mouvement patriotique pour la Centrafrique from the Coalition des patriotes pour le changement on 3 November 2023. As at 1 June, they were still in detention. On 30 April, the Special Criminal Court announced the issuance of an international arrest warrant on 27 February against the former President, François Bozizé Yangouvonda, for various crimes against humanity allegedly committed between February 2009 and March 2013 by members of his presidential guard and other internal security forces.
18. On 23 May, Mr. Touadéra attended the swearing-in ceremony in N’Djamena of the newly elected President of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno.
Electoral process
19. The Government continued efforts to prepare for the local elections scheduled for October 2024. On 28 February, Mr. Moloua formally requested the United Nations to extend its electoral assistance to the Central African Republic for the presidential and legislative elections to be held in 2025 and 2026 and to elevate electoral assistance as a priority mandated task of MINUSCA, while calling for the Mission’s increased role in resource mobilization and budgetary support, as well as continuous technical, operational, logistical and security support, including for the local elections in 2024 and 2025.
20. On 1 March, the Constitutional Council issued a decision regarding aspects of the proposed new electoral code that required revision to align it with the Constitution of 2023. Specifically, the Council annulled provisions authorizing the National Electoral Authority to invalidate candidacies and annulled the requirement for government members to resign at least three months before an election in order to be eligible as candidates. On 28 May, the National Assembly adopted the revised electoral code as well as the organic law on the composition, organization and operation of the National Electoral Authority.
21. On 11 April, the elections security working group, composed of the national defence and security forces and MINUSCA, approved a joint security assessment to guide deployment plans during the electoral process.
22. On 28 May, the President of the National Electoral Authority and the Minister of Finance and Budget presented a revised budget for the local elections to the strategic committee for elections amounting to $14,760,918. Pledges for the electoral process amount to $6.8 million, including $4.5 million from the Government, of which it disbursed $240,000 in November 2022 and on 28 May 2024 reaffirmed a pledge of $3.5 million, and $2.3 million from donors, with $100,000 disbursed in 2022. On 16 May, the Government, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a funding agreement for the disbursement of the European Union contribution.