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TEHRAN, Mar 04 - Less than a month after it was signed, the Central African Republic's peace agreement was under strain on Monday after two militia groups abandoned the deal and a third said it was quitting a new government designed to be the keystone of the accord.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The Democratic Front of the Central African People (FPDC), one of 14 armed groups that inked the so-called Khartoum Agreement, announced it was walking away in protest at a newly formed government.
The FPDC "is resolved purely and simply to withdraw from the peace process," it said in a statement sent to AFP.
The group, whose stronghold is in the northwest, protested that the new government formed on Sunday was "far from being inclusive".
Another large militia, the Patriotic Movement for Central Africa (MPC), citing the same reason, said it considered the accord was "void."
Just hours after the ministerial list was unveiled on Sunday, the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), said it was leaving the government.
The FPRC did not specify whether it planned to remain part of the peace process, but charged the authorities with "bad faith, amateurism and incompetence."
The peace agreement was forged after negotiations in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum before being signed in Bangui on February 6.
The deal brings together President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the leaders of the 14 armed groups who control most of the CAR.
It is the eighth attempt to bring peace to the CAR, one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries, since mainly Muslim rebels ousted president Francois Bozize, a Christian, in 2013.
France, the former colonial ruler, intervened militarily under a UN mandate as fears grew of a Rwandan-style genocide.
The Seleka were forced from power and in February 2016, Touadera, a former prime minister, was elected president.
Source: AFP
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