By Lazarus Odenge

MINUSCA spokesman Vladimir Monteiro recently announced the deployment of a contingent of peacekeepers to the small town of Bambouti in the Haut-Mbomou region of southeastern CAR starting May 8. This news came as a big surprise to many, as there have never been peacekeepers’ bases in this region before. And besides, all this is happening against the background of the fact that the residents of the Central African Republic regularly demand the withdrawal of one contingent the other.

As Monteiro stated, the new base will be aimed at “protecting civilians, ensuring security in the Obo-Bambouti axis and creating conditions for the expansion of state authority.” However, let us turn to the facts.
Everyone knows that the peacekeeping mission is one of the UN’s most expensive projects. Along with annual mandate renewals, the UN allocates an ever-increasing budget to the blue helmets. And this is despite the fact that there is a lot of evidence of corrupt actions of peacekeepers defaming the honour of the entire mission. And the new base will inevitably require even more investment, which will not be spent on establishing peace in the country.

Another important fact is that the new base is located near the borders of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which raises suspicions about the willingness of peacekeepers to help militants cross the border. As similar examples have been repeatedly published online.

This will most likely help the MINUSCA soldiers to artificially destabilize the security situation in the region. After all, this is exactly what they want to do in order to extend their mandate under the pretext of their indispensability in the fight against crime.

It is also important to mention that most likely MINUSCA is not restless with the success of FACA and Russian instructors, who are actively and successfully fighting the militants in the eastern part of CAR. The Blue Helmets decided to urgently deploy their new base in order to transmit data on the movement of FACA and Russian instructors to the militants, which it has also been repeatedly accused of doing.

*Odenge is an independent writer and journalist.