United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the international community to contribute another 3,000 troops to the Central African Republic to prevent the spread of religious revenge-killings that have forced almost one million people to flee their homes.  The growing unrest is dividing the country into Muslim and Christian areas.

Ban informed the UN Security Council about his a recommendation for a UN peacekeeping force with a robust mandate to protect civilians and promote stability in the country.

“But the deployment of a peacekeeping operation, if authorized, will take months.  The people of the Central African Republic do not have months to wait,” Ban said.  “The international community must act decisively now.  If it actually happens, it would raise the number of foreign peacekeepers in the CAR to 11,000.”

The European Union is already supposed to send 1,000 troops to join 6,000 African Union peacekeepers and almost 2,000 French soldiers.  That force is struggling to stop the fighting sparked a year ago, when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group seized power.  But Muslims are a minority in the CAR, and holding on to power was not sustainable.  Majority Christians formed their owned militias and in the past two months have staged revenge attacks that have been increasing in frequency and violence.  Nearly one million people are displaced because of the fighting.