The U.N. Security Council has voted to relax the arms embargo against the Central African Republic, a disappointment to its government, which sought a complete lifting of the ban on the sale or transfer of weapons and ammunition.
The vote was 10-0 with Russia, China and the council’s three African members that supported a lifting of the embargo abstaining.
Sylvie Baïpo-Temon, the Central African Republic’s foreign minister, told the council after the vote that the government welcomed the first step toward an arms embargo on armed groups. She also welcomed the end to limits on some categories of weapons for government forces, but she stressed that “this embargo is no longer justified.”
“The embargo from 2013 is undeniably ineffective because it no longer provides specific solutions to the grave problems posed by the proliferation of arms by extremists and rebels who have many, many sophisticated weapons themselves,” Baïpo-Temon said.The mineral-rich but impoverished Central African Republic has faced deadly intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced President Francois Bozize from office.