Russia Only Country to Have Helped Arm CAR Army - Defense Minister

ST. PETERSBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2019) Russia remains the only country in the world that has supplied weaponry and trains the Central African Republic's Armed Forces, car Defense Minister Marie-Noelle Koyara said in an interview with Sputnik.

She said the country needs to ensure full security, and to this end, it needs state security structures - the army, police, gendarmerie.

"I would like to express my gratitude to Russia for being the only country that has supplied us with weapons just to strengthen these state institutions, for training our armed forces and making them combat effective," Koyara said.

"But it is necessary to understand that training alone is not enough and you should also have weapons to fight with. You probably know that the so-called second tranche of arms supplies was blocked at the level of the UN Security Council, and I would like to hope that all diplomatic efforts will lead to the lifting of this embargo, to ensure that our Armed Forces are truly armed," she said.