African Union's Commissioner Says CAR Deal Unprecedented, Will Hopefully Promote Peace

The agreement on the Central African Republic's (CAR) peace settlement reached in Khartoum is unprecedented and hopefully will further promote dialogue and reconciliation, African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said on Monday

ADDIS ABABA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) The agreement on the Central African Republic's (CAR) peace settlement reached in Khartoum is unprecedented and hopefully will further promote dialogue and reconciliation, African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui said on Monday.

Chergui was speaking at the 32 AU summit underway in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

"It is a really unprecedented agreement compared to the former ones ... I hope that this will really promote dialogue, reconciliation, justice," Chergui said during a press briefing.

The African Union's commissioner stressed the importance of implementing the deal.

"I think the important element now is the implementation and ... we have a robust follow up mechanism but also we will be pointing to any party that does not respect the agreement," Chergui said.

On February 2, it became known that the conflicting sides agreed to establish a mixed border security mechanism between the CAR government, UN troops and representatives of the armed groups.

It was also decided that a special commission tasked with accounting all the crimes committed in the country since 2013 would be set up.

On Tuesday, CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and leaders of 14 armed groups initiated the peace agreement at talks in Khartoum. On Wednesday, the deal was finalized and inked in the CAR capital of Bangui by the participants in the talks.

The CAR ministry for communications and media announced on Thursday that the peace agreement reached between the CAR authorities and armed groups would be unveiled at the AU summit in Addis Ababa after being appended by the missing signatures of several parties involved.

CAR has been suffering from sectarian clashes between the Muslims and Christians since the 2013 coup, when the Muslim Seleka rebels seized control of the nation, overthrowing then-President Francois Bozize and provoking a backlash from the Christian Anti-Balaka militia. On January 24 of this year, the CAR government for the first time engaged in AU-brokered direct talks with the country's opposition groups.