PARIS — French President Francois Hollande has asked the United Nations to play a bigger role in the Central African Republic, Hollande's office said in a statement on Friday. France deployed a 1,600 strong peacekeeping mission in its former colony this month to stop massacres between Muslim and Christian militias, but the UN-backed intervention is struggling to restore security in the country. “(The president) has asked the United Nations to play a more important role during the transition in Central African Republic,” Hollande's office said of his phone call with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A UN statement said events in the impoverished state were now “grave” and that Ban and Hollande had discussed efforts to bolster an African Union peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, officially known as MISCA. The two leaders said there was a “need to address capacity constraints by raising the number of personnel capable of providing security to the territory, undertake disarmament and support the organization of elections.” “As requested by the Security Council, the United Nations has already started contingency planning and preparations for the potential transformation of MISCA into a United Nations peacekeeping operation,” said the statement. “Further consultations with members of the Security Council and with the African Union will be expeditiously undertaken in the coming days. Scores of demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Bangui on Sunday to complain that French forces were disarming only Muslim Seleka fighters, exposing Muslim citizens to revenge attacks by Christian groups. France has formally denied this. Hollande said he had told Ban the French troops were there to protect the civilian population without discrimination. Ban said in a statement on Thursday that he was appalled by the continued violence, including the reports of dozens more bodies found on the streets of the capital Bangui. — Agencies
