BANGUI, Central African Republic — France and the African Union on Saturday announced plans to deploy several thousand more troops into embattled Central African Republic, as thousands of Christians fearing reprisal attacks sought refuge from the Muslim former rebels who now control the country after days of violence left at least 400 people dead.
French armored personnel carriers and troops from an AU-backed peacekeeping mission roared down Bangui’s major roads, as families carrying palm fronds pushed coffins in carts on the road’s shoulder. In a sign of the mounting tensions, others walking on the streets carried bow-and-arrows and machetes.
Concluding a long-planned conference on African security in Paris, President Francois Hollande said France was raising its deployment to 1,600 on Saturday — 400 more than first announced.
Later, after a meeting of regional nations about Central African Republic, his office said that African Union nations agreed to increase their total deployment to 6,000 — up from about 2,500 now and two-thirds more than the projected rollout of 3,600 by year-end.
Amid new massacres Thursday, U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution that allows for a more muscular international effort to quell months of unrest in the country.
Troops from France, the country’s former colonial overseer, were patrolling roads in Bangui and fanning out into the troubled northwest Saturday.
“This force is going to deploy as quickly as possible, and everywhere there are risks for the population, with the African forces that are present — currently 2,500 soldiers,” Hollande said, referring to the increased French presence. “In what I believe will be a very short period, we will be able to stop all exactions and massacres.”
In an interview with France-24 TV, Hollande said the AU reinforcements would arrive “in the coming days,” without specifying. He said 1,600 French soldiers was “enough; there won’t be more,” and added that they would remain as planned for about six months — although a residual force of 500 to 600 might stay thereafter.
Word of the bigger deployments came as human rights groups continued the grisly business of counting and collecting bodies of those killed in recent massacres. The death toll in the capital from the recent fighting rose Saturday to 394, said Antoine Mbao Bogo of the local Red Cross.
Central African Republic President Michel Djotodia called on former rebels who are now integrated into the national army to stay off the streets being patrolled by French and regional forces. Presidential spokesman Guy Simplice Kodegue said those who violated the order would be punished.
Most of the displaced in Bangui are Christian. The rebels have not targeted Muslim neighborhoods.
