A United Nations peacekeeping force is being inaugurated in the Central African Republic today -- the first major UN peacekeeping force on the continent since UN operations in Somalia and Rwanda collapsed in failure in the early nineteen-nineties amid heavy fighting.

The aim of the mission is to prevent a repetition of army mutinies which began in 1996, and to provide security for elections due later this year.

The force, of some fourteen-hundred soldiers, is made up mainly of African contingents, with logistical support from France and Canada.

The BBC correspondent in Abidjan says that the African aim for the new force is to prevent insecurity from spreading in the region.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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