France warns Central African Republic crisis could be longer than expected

BANGUI

France's defence minister warned Saturday that ending sectarian strife in the Central African Republic could take longer than expected as peacekeepers went door-to-door in the capital Bangui seizing weapons from militia.

A military operation "cannot run like clockwork," said Jean-Yves Le Drian after France pledged to send 400 more troops to the war-torn country.

"It has to be adapted, situations have to be taken into account and security needs met depending on events."

French President Francois Hollande said the operation would be brief when it began in early December.

But Le Drian told French radio: "I think it will be longer than planned because the degree of hatred and violence is worse than we imagined."

The European Union and France pledged a sharp increase in the number of troops deployed in the Central African Republic on Friday, as concern mounted over a horrific spiral of violence across the country.

France will eventually have 2,000 troops in the country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Berlin wanted to bolster its military cooperation with France, particularly in conflict-wracked areas of Africa.

"More convergence is possible", notably in terms of working together in Mali or Central Africa, the chancellor added.

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has also said she expects to send a medical services Airbus to back up the French mission in the war-wracked Central African Republic.

ETHNIC CLEANSING

International troops meanwhile went house to house for about four hours Saturday in Bangui's Boy Rabe neighbourhood, the base of mostly Christian militias whose attacks have driven many minority Muslims from the city in recent weeks, sparking warnings of "ethnic cleansing". (READ: Central Africa children killed, mutilated - UNICEF)

Automatic weapons, grenades and a large amount of munitions were seized and "more than a dozen" people detained in the unprecedented operation that involved some 250 peacekeepers and police, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene.

"All people who were found to have weapons in their homes have been identified and will be handed over to the police," a peacekeeper from the African Union MISCA mission told AFP.

Among those detained was lieutenant Herve Ganazoui, "in charge of 'anti-balaka leadership' operations", Emotion Brice Namsi, a militia spokesman, told AFP.

But despite surrounding the house of a senior militia leader, Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, the soldiers failed to capture the man who casts himself as the political coordinator of the fearsome "anti-balaka" militias.

"They didn't manage to take me, I was out," Ngaissona said later.

Bangui chief prosecutor Ghislain Grezenguet said Ngaissona was "the big fish who had to be detained".

Peacekeepers left the neighbourhood to jeers from residents.

The so-called "anti-balaka" militias were formed in the country in response to killing and pillaging by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels following their coup nearly a year ago in the majority Christian nation.

In recent months, as international peacekeepers deployed to the former French colony have disarmed the Seleka, brutal attacks by the militias have sowed terror among the Muslim population, forcing many to flee the country.

Amnesty International this week warned that violence in Central Africa has grown into an "ethnic cleansing" campaign, while the UN refugee agency has described the situation as "a humanitarian catastrophe of unspeakable proportions".