A United Nations official warned that the “seeds of genocide” were present in the Central African Republic, as the European Union looks set to deploy troops to the crisis hit region.
Speaking after a 5-day visit to the country, John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a press conference,
"It has all the elements that we have seen elsewhere, in places like Rwanda and Bosnia. The elements are there, the seeds are there, for a genocide. There's no question about that."
His warning last week comes as the European Union took steps to send a military force to the CAR. Whilst detailed military plans are still to be drawn up, ministers have approved plans to send a battalion, bolstering the 1,600 troops that have already been deployed by France.
EU humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva had commented,
"This has been for far too long a forgotten crisis, (but it is) forgotten no more".
Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said,
"We do face an emergency there and we need to act".