Artyom Kozhin, Deputy Head of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has stated that five military and 170 civilian instructors from Russia have been sent to the Central African Republic (CAR).

"With the consent of the UN Security Council Committee created pursuant to UNSC Resolution 2127, an allocation of small arms and ammunition from the stocks of Russia’s Defense Ministry was made available to the Central African Army in late January - early February. Five military and 170 civilian instructors from Russia were sent to train CAR service personnel with the knowledge of this committee," the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Press Service quotes him as saying.

According to the diplomat, the assistance is provided "in strict accordance with the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on the country."

"Russia’s assistance is carried out as part of the common efforts of the international community to strengthen the national security units of the CAR, to transfer full responsibility for maintaining security and law and order throughout its territory to the local authority and, ultimately, to normalize the situation and to provide a lasting solution to the drawn-out internal armed conflict," he concluded.

Diplomatic relations between the CAR and the USSR were established in 1960.

  Central African Republic, Russian military

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