C.Africa President Decrees Unilateral Conflict Ceasefire

Bangui, Central African Republic, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Oct, 2021 ) :The President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadera, on Friday decreed a "unilateral ceasefire" in the country's conflict with rebel groups.

"I have come to announce to you this evening the end of military operations and all armed actions across the land from today... at midnight," Touadera told national radio.) He added that "this immediate, unilateral ceasefire is a demonstration... of my firm intent to prioritise the path of dialogue" after eight years of war.

The United Nations ranks the car as the world's second least developed state and its cause was only hindered by the 2013 outbreak of civil war.

The past three years has seen the intensity of the conflict drop off but terror groups continue to dominate swathes of the country and elude the authorities' grasp.

Last December saw the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of armed groups which together occupied some two thirds of the nation, launch a major offensive.

That attack was designed to unseat Touadera and prevent his re-election that month. Thereafter, he promised to seek national reconciliation -- while also soliciting support for a flagging army from Russian and Rwandan paramilitaries.

The latter have enabled the armed forces to wrest back control of a number of previously rebel-held towns and pushed the fighters back into the forests and the bush.

Rebels have nonetheless in recent weeks carried out several attacks albeit well outside the capital Bangui.