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The Central African Republic on Thursday released four French soldiers in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in the CAR, whose arrest sparked condemnation from the UN, the mission said.
“The four MINUSCA personnel members who were arrested… at Bangui airport have just been freed,” the mission’s chief, Mankeur Ndiaye, said on Twitter.
The French embassy in the CAR capital confirmed this account, also via Twitter, but did not give further details.
The four soldiers — members of the elite French Foreign Legion, with French, Romanian, Bulgarian and Italian nationalities — were arrested at the airport on Monday.
They had gone there to escort MINUSCA’s military chief, General Stephane Marchenoir, who was taking a plane to Europe, the French embassy and the UN said.
But accusations instantly circulated on social media that they had planned to “assassinate” President Faustin Archange Touadera — allegations coinciding with a row with France over Touadera’s use of Russian paramilitaries.
The postings on social media included photographs of their weapons spread out on the ground, as well as their IDs, along with a video of their arrest.
France and the UN fiercely criticised what they described as media manipulation, but the following day the CAR public prosecutor’s office said it had opened a “routine inquiry to shed light on the facts.”
It said the “suspicious” vehicle carried four automatic pistols, three assault rifles, a machine gun and grenades, and that the four men onboard had been “less than 30 metres (yards) from the passing presidential motorcade.”
“The vehicle had been followed by police intelligence for the past two months,” prosecutor Laurent Lengande added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the arrest and demanded the immediate release of the four.
He accused the CAR authorities of…
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Source : france24
