U.N. calls for implementation of accord

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council is calling on the Central African Republic to fully implement a recent peace deal in order to bring stability to the country.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States, who holds the Security Council's rotating presidency for June, called on leaders of the former rebel groups the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity and the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy, along with the government of CAR, to implement the peace deal recently reached, the United Nations reported.

The peace accord, reached after talks in Libreville, Gabon, between leaders of the two rebel groups and with officials from the CAR government, is an effort to end the years of violence marked by armed banditry and widespread fighting.

The Security Council welcomed the accord facilitated by Gabon President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, after an estimated 200,000 CAR citizens were forced from their homes to flee the violence.

But Khalilzad warned "that the political, economic and humanitarian situation inside the CAR remains fragile, despite the peace agreement," and he welcomed the placing of the CAR on the agenda of the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission, the release said.