Activities of armed groups in the volatile Central African Republic have increased, complicating a security landscape that has seen a spillover of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan, U.N. experts warn in a new report.
The experts cite confirmed reports of air raids by the Sudanese military around border areas and of fighters from the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces crossing over to recruit from armed groups in the Central African Republic.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum.
Fighting spread to other regions, including Darfur, which borders the Central African Republic’s northeastern Vakaga region. The U.N. says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured in the Sudan fight.
Cross border escape
The expert panel, which monitors sanctions on mercenaries and armed groups in the Central African Republic, said the U.N. had registered almost 10,700 Sudanese refugees who had fled across the border into the Central African Republic by late March.
The war in Sudan has also disrupted the important trade and transportation route between the Central African Republic and Sudan's Darfur region through the border at Am Dafok.
The situation left people in Vakaga and neighbouring Haute-Kotto more insecure over the past year, and aid deliveries were slower and more expensive, the panel said.
The Central African Republic remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast mineral wealth, including gold and diamonds.
Unending rebel actions
Rebel groups have operated with impunity across the country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies.
The country has been in conflict since 2013, when rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize out of office.
The experts said that on December 10, 2023, six waves of explosions were heard at the Russian instructors’ base in Kaga Bandoro in the west of the Central African Republic, and three instructors were killed and seven people injured.
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