President Paul Kagame is this afternoon expected to attend the second regional meeting on the political and security situation in the Central African Republic, taking place in Luanda, Angola. Prior to the summit, the head of state met with his Angolan counterpart, President Joao Lourenco, who is also the Chairperson of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). Rwanda is among the countries that have deployed troops, at the request of the government in Bangui, to help prevent a coalition of rebels from inflaming tensions in the troubled nation. In December 2020, the government of Rwanda deployed force protection troops trained to conduct special operations in Bangui, under a bilateral agreement on defence. Various reports indicate that CARs neighbours are hideouts of radicals that infiltrate CARs borders and commit numerous acts of violence, adding to the atrocities already committed by the coalition of armed groups led by former President François Bozizé, Bozize, who now faces an international arrest warrant, now leads the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), formed by several armed groups last December as they looked to disrupt the presidential elections that President Faustin-Archange Touadéra won to get a second term. The CAR’s Constitutional Court confirmed Touadera’s re-election, on January 18. Just recently, President Touadera on Thursday awarded Rwandan peacekeepers (Rwanbatt7) serving under United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission with the country’s Recognition Medal for their contribution to ensure recent peaceful elections.
