A Rwandan blue helmet was killed Monday and two others injured in an attack by one of the main Central African armed groups in Gedze (West), the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (Minusca) announced on Monday. "This criminal attack constitutes a new violation" by the armed group 3R (Return, Complaint and Rehabilitation) of the peace agreement which binds the Central African government to 14 armed groups since February 6, 2019, said Minusca on its Facebook page .
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In early June, the leader of the 3Rs, Sidiki Abass, announced that he was suspending his participation in the agreement, and the Minusca launched shortly after a military operation in the West to counter the expansion of the armed group. "Attacks against United Nations peacekeepers can constitute a war crime under international law , " said Minusca in a statement. Two soldiers from the Central African army had already been killed at the end of June by the 3Rs in the commune of Besson, of which Gedze is one of the villages.
The 3Rs are one of the main armed groups in the country, mainly composed of Fulani and active in the west of the country. A few months before a high-risk presidential election, scheduled for December 2020, and despite the agreement signed in February 2019, the Central African Republic is still plagued by abuses by militias, and the government controls only a small part of the territory .