France, Britain and the US on Thursday put a hold on a request from the Central African Republic (CAR) for UN Security Council approval of Chinese weapons deliveries for its national forces.
Central African Minister of National Defense, Veterans, War Victims and Restructuring of the Army Marie-Noelle Koyara on Tuesday last week asked a UN sanctions committee to grant an exemption to an arms embargo and allow the shipments of Chinese-made armored vehicles, machine guns, tear gas grenades and other weaponry for its army and police.
France said it had concerns about “some lethal equipment included in this exemption request,” citing anti-aircraft weapons and ammunitions, a document obtained by reporters showed.
The French mission to the UN requested “additional justifications concerning this lethal equipment in order to be able to take a decision,” the document showed.
The US said that there was “no threat of an air attack” in the Central African Republic and questioned deliveries of eight grenade launchers, four anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-personnel grenades and rockets.
Britain said it was concerned that the shipments would pass through Cameroon unescorted to the border with the Central African Republic.
In her request to the UN, Koyara said the weaponry would help strengthen national forces who are “confronted with the strength and escalating violence of armed groups whose illegal activities pose a threat to civil order.”
The council imposed an arms embargo on the Central African Republic in 2013, when the country descended into bloodshed, but its sanctions committee last year gave the green light for Russia to supply weapons to national forces.
China wants to donate military equipment that includes 12 armored vehicles and four assault vehicles, 50 pistols, six sniper rifles, 10 submachine guns with silencers and about 30 machine guns of various calibers.
The list of equipment from China’s Poly Technologies also includes 300 rockets, 500 anti-tank grenades, about 725,000 rounds of ammunition of various types and 15,000 tear gas grenades.
The request for the Chinese weaponry is backed by an EU military training mission and by the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which has come under repeated attacks from armed groups.
Five peacekeepers have been killed this year.
In its note detailing objections, the US mission to the UN argued that special training was needed to operate the grenade launchers, “which we are not certain has been provided.”
Most of the armored vehicles and other weaponry would be used by special forces trained by Rwanda and certified by MINUSCA.
Central African gendarmerie and police units were trained by the UN force.
In her request, Koyara said the tear gas would help gendarmerie and police with crowd control.
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