Samba-Panza Hails Egypt Move To Send 200 Troops To Car

Interim President of the Central African Republic (CAR) Catherine Samba-Panza on Thursday lauded Egypt for agreeing to send 200 peacekeeping troops to her war-torn state.



She said her country looked forward to bolstering its relations with Egypt and also reopening the Egyptian embassy in Bangui – the capital of the Central African Republic.



Samba-Panza has started a visit to the Egyptian capital Cairo, her first since she took over in her country earlier this year.



She is expected to spend two days in Egypt together with a high-level delegation she is bringing with her from her country.



The interim president underlined the importance of scholars sent by Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque to her sectarian strife-torn country, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement following Samba-Panza's meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.



She said these scholars had played an important role in spreading the moderate values of the Islamic religion and also fighting radical ideas, the presidency added in the statement.



Samba-Panza described her country's problem as a dual "political and military" one, noting that sectarianism was only made part of the conflict in order to exacerbate it.



Since last year, mineral-rich CAR has been plagued by tit-for-tat sectarian violence between Christian anti-Balaka militiamen and Muslim seleka fighters.



Christians, who account for the majority of the country's population, accuse Muslims of supporting former seleka rebels blamed for attacking Christian homes, looting property and carrying out summary executions.



Since December of last year, some 173,000 people have been internally displaced by sporadic sectarian violence, while 37,000 others have fled to neighboring countries, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR.



Over 30,000 have reportedly sought refuge in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo, while Chad and Cameroon now host roughly 5,600 and 1,000 CAR refugees respectively, according to UNHCR figures.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire