Hollande calls for stronger EU support in the CAR

“France wants its military operation to be under the label of EU,” said Hollande in a press conference at the EU Brussels Summit. France called for EU funding of this and other future operations.  France’s EU allies have given their full political backing to the operations, accepting that Europe’s security interests would be at stake. They pledged financial and training support for African forces also involved, as well as humanitarian aid. France still struggles to persuade other Europeans to help with the operation in CAR, which is a former French colony. The first positive response came from Poland, which will send up to 60 Polish air force military troops to assist in air operations, announced Hollande. “France is also expecting support from other EU countries,” said the president. The government of Belgium is also considering the dispatch of some 150 troops for a protection mission, possibly to secure airports, according to a Belgian military source. In November 2013, the UN warned CAR was at risk of turning into genocide and said it was "descending into complete chaos”. The CAR is a deeply poor, landlocked nation of 4.6 million, 80 percent of whom are Christian, with a history of coups, rebellions, army mutinies and civil unrest that has prevented the exploitation of its mineral wealth. The latest crisis is the first to take on a sectarian and there are fears it will turn into a mass slaughter. The increasing violence was largely from reprisal attacks on civilians from mainly Muslim Seleka fighters, a coalition of rebels, and Christian militias called "anti-balaka", meaning anti-sword. As many Christians had sedentary lifestyles and many Muslims were nomadic, claims to the land were yet another dimension of the tensions.