MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) Central African government troops pushed militants out of an important trade hub near the borders with Chad and Cameroon over the weekend, the Russian embassy said Tuesday.
"On March 7, soldiers of the Central African armed forces liberated with the help of Russian instructors the town of Paoua in the country's northwest," a statement read.
The diplomatic mission said that the town was key to goods transport from the Cameroonian port of Douala to the Chadian capital of N'Djamena.
The government has stepped up attacks on the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of militant groups, ahead of this Sunday's legislative elections.
Vladimir Titorenko, the Russian ambassador to the country, told Sputnik that fewer than 1,500 militants were still at large following a counter-offensive mounted by the government in response to last December's violence.
