Wednesday’s agreement was reached with a view to emerging with a cabinet that would be more inclusive in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Khartoum accord.
“At the end of a 72-hour consultation, a consensus was reached, in particular on strengthening the inclusive nature of the government,” said the final communiqué of the meeting, held at African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.
According to the communiqué, the African Union, the United Nations and ECCAS are “fully supporting the new inclusive government and looking forward to its early implementation.”
On this basis, the partners “strongly urged” the stakeholders to focus on the full implementation of the agreement in order to “urgently address the key concerns of all Central Africans, including those related to the return of security, through DDRR and reconstruction through the implementation of the Central African Republic Recovery and Peace building Plan (RCPCA), the statement added.”
However, this new joint communiqué was not signed by one of the 14 armed groups involved in the peace and reconciliation process negotiated in Khartoum, despite negotiations to bring it back to the fold.
Signed on 6 February in Bangui after several days of negotiations in Khartoum, Sudan, the peace and national reconciliation agreement in CAR had shown its limits as soon as a new government was put in place.
The 36-member team, made up of Prime Minister Firmin Ngrébada, has been strongly condemned by 11 armed groups on the grounds that they were either left out or under represented.
Faced with this situation, the African Union, the initiator of the inter-Central African talks, was forced to reconvene the parties concerned for 72 hours of negotiations at its headquarters in Addis Ababa.