Representatives from 14 militias in the strife-torn Central African Republic have held “positive” talks that could lead to negotiations with the government, the African Union (AU), acting as a mediator, said Friday.
The “positive meeting in Bouar (in western CAR) ended yesterday with a single document on demands, signed by the representatives of the 14 armed groups,” Francis Che, a spokesman for the AU panel in CAR said.
The document will now be put to the government as “the basis for negotiations between the two sides,” Che said.
The AU, supported by the UN and the CAR’s main partners, has been striving to set up negotiations between the militias and the government since July 2017 but progress has been scant.
The signed document contains 104 militia demands — seven more than they had put forward previously in draft form.
