France’s foreign minister said an African Union-led plan was the only viable way to end fighting among rival factions in the Central African Republic, pushing back Monday against an alternative peace process steered by Russia.
“There is no alternative that is either desirable or is likely to succeed,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters at the United Nations.
His comments came after Russia and Sudan co-hosted talks in Khartoum late last month among some of the Central African Republic’s rival militias in a sign of Moscow’s growing involvement in the country.
The militias have been battling one another ever since the 2013 overthrow of longtime leader Francois Bozize, a Christian, by majority-Muslim militias in a coalition called the Seleka.
France, the former colonial power, intervened to oust the Seleka and the UN deployed a peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, in 2014.
