Security Council boosts number of corrections officers for UN mission in Central African Republic

Determining that the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) remains a threat to international peace and security, the United Nations Security Council decided today to maintain the current personnel ceiling of more than 12,800 personnel in the military and police components of the UN peacekeeping operation in the country and to increase the number of corrections officers.

In its unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Council decided that the UN Integrated Multidimensional Mission in the CAR, known by its French acronym, MINUSCA, will comprise up to 10,750 military personnel, among them 480 military observers and military staff officers, and 2,080 police personnel, among them 400 individual police officers. It also decided to raise the number of corrections officers from 40 to 108.

The Council also asked the Secretary-General to keep the level of MINUSCA's military and police personnel and corrections officers under continuous review.

The current mandate of the mission, which was established in 2014 to replace the UN Peacebuilding Office in CAR (BINUCA), is set to expire at the end of April.

More than three years of civil war and sectarian violence have displaced thousands of people in the CAR amid continuing clashes between the mainly Muslim Séléka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian. The UN recently reported an upsurge in violence, in particular last September and October, committed by armed elements.

MINUSCA itself has recently been hit by a series of allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and associated troops. Just yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named Jane Holl Lute, an American official with wide-ranging United Nations experience, to coordinate efforts to curb the scourge.