Central African Republic welcomes lifting of UN arms embargo

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted On July 30, 2024, a resolution lifting the arms embargo on the Central African Republic. The embargo had been imposed in 2013 after the start of the civil war, then modified and renewed in 2023. Arms destined for the army were still subject to a declaration requirement. Bangui is now hailing a “diplomatic victory” that puts an end to a “terrible injustice”.

The satisfaction of the authorities of the Central African Republic (CAR) is expressed by Sylvie Baipo Temon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who speaks of “pride and satisfaction”, evoking a “happy result, the fruit of long and hard work” during which the CAR had to battle to recover an “essential right to its sovereignty”.

Indeed, this was a recurrent demand of the Central African authorities. Over the years, however, the embargo had been relaxed.

Since 2022, the authorities have only had to report arms purchases to the monitoring committee. A kind of right of oversight that upset Bangui. The Central African Republic said it was losing the upper hand against armed groups in possession of increasingly sophisticated weapons.