Neighboring Sudan.pdf

The Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic submitted a midterm report to the Security Council, detailing the country's difficulties in making progress towards peace. The reporting period was marked by serious outbreaks of violence, including in areas that had previously improved, such as Bangui and Bambari. "Operation Sukula" triggered an increase in intercommunal tensions, resulting in at least 70 people killed and 330 injured. The operation failed to dismantle self-defence groups and instead strengthened their grip on the neighbourhood. The country's security and armed forces received training and military equipment from the Russian Federation, facilitating the reoperationalization of the Forces armées centrafricaines (FACA). Ex-Séléka factions maintained their engagement in the African Union Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation, but also continued to acquire weaponry and consolidate parallel administration in areas under their control. Ongoing fighting resulted in human rights and international humanitarian law violations, including widespread rapes and indiscriminate killing of civilians. The report also notes a disruption in the positive dynamics created by the lifting of the suspension of diamond exports, with a surge in trafficking in rough diamonds. New cases of sanctions violations were also reported, including travel ban violations by former President François Bozizé.