20100810
reuters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Central African Republic on Tuesday pleaded with the U.N. Security Council for help as it grapples with rebels ahead of an expected withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers stationed there and in neighboring Chad.

Last month the Central African Republic announced it would delay presidential and legislative elections until January 23, 2011 from October 24 due to insecurity caused by rebels in the northeastern part of the country.

Bowing to demands from Chad, the Security Council in May instructed U.N. peacekeepers in Chad and Central African Republic, known as MINURCAT, to withdraw from the impoverished part of Africa by the year's end.

But Central African Republic's Foreign Minister Antoine Gambi asked the council not to abandon his country.

"Now that the mandate of MINURCAT is coming to an end, there is a need to protect the very future of this part of the country, still precarious, which can at any point stumble back into violence given the many destabilizing factors," he said.

He said his country was confronting rebellion, banditry and inter-ethnic conflict and "other emerging threats."

"The announcement of the withdrawal of the United Nations mission to the Central African Republic ... will have dangerous consequences if we're not careful," he told the council.

After the council meeting, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, this month's president of the 15-nation body, told reporters it had discussed the consequences of MINURCAT's withdrawal from the CAR "and the need to avoid any vacuum of security in the sub-region." He gave no further details.