UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday adopted a resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) for another year until Nov. 15, 2021.
The Council decided, through adopting Resolution 2552, that MINUSCA shall continue to comprise up to 11,650 military personnel and 2,080 police personnel, and recalled its intention to keep this number under continuous review.
The Council decided that MINUSCA's strategic objective is to support the creation of the political, security and institutional conditions conducive to the sustainable reduction of the presence of, and threat posed by, armed groups through a comprehensive approach and proactive and robust posture without prejudice to the basic principles of peacekeeping.
The Council called upon all parties to armed conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), including armed groups, to end sexual and gender-based violence, further called upon the CAR authorities to swiftly investigate alleged abuses in order to fight impunity of those responsible for such acts, and to take concrete, specific and time-bound steps toward implementing the UN and Government of CAR joint communique to prevent and respond to sexual violence in conflict and to ensure that those responsible for such crimes are excluded from the security sector and prosecuted, and to facilitate immediate access for all survivors of sexual violence to available services.
MINUSCA was started on April 10, 2014 to protect the CAR civilians under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The country has been in civil war since 2012, which is being fought along religious and ethnic lines. The country's government, which controls only a fifth of the country's territory, wants MINUSCA to take up more security responsibilities.
