BANGUI, Central African Republic, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- France's decision to send some 1,000 troops to the crisis-torn Central African Republic, once part of its former African empire, is unlikely to quell the growing Christian-Muslim bloodletting sweeping the long-troubled country.
The deployment announced in Paris Tuesday will raise French military strength in CAR to more than 1,200 and marks a new level of commitment by the government of President Francois Hollande to impose order.
But, the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor observed, French forces "will likely avoid direct engagement with the rebel forces in the country."
It said "the scale of operations being planned will mostly seek to secure Bangui," the capital, and other population centers as Muslim rebels rampage across much of the country, looting, pillaging, killing and carrying out mass rapes.
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CAR has been torn by violence since a loose coalition of five Muslim rebel groups known as the Seleka seized the ramshackle capital in March and deposed Christian President Francois Bozize.
The rebels, reinforced by mercenaries from neighboring Chad and Sudan, installed Seleka leader Michel Djotodia in power, the first Muslim ruler in the predominantly Christian country that's been in turmoil since gaining independence from France in 1960.
Djotodia has since renounced the Seleka and declared the alliance disbanded. But he has lost control and the Muslim fighters continue to terrorize Christian communities, which have formed their own self-defense militias that claim to be pro-Bozize.
The country, rich in minerals but mired in poverty because of corruption and poor governance, has fallen into near-total anarchy with thousands of people slaughtered or kidnapped, and some 500,000 driven from their homes.
Many of these people are reported hiding in the jungle without access to medical care or reliable food supply.
Aid agencies report 1.1 million people, about a quarter of the 4.6 million population, face acute food shortages. Christians make up 50 percent of the population, Muslims 15 percent.
The U.N. deputy secretary-general, Jan Eliasson, says CAR faces a desperate and horrifying situation.
"The use of child soldiers is rising and sexual violence is growing," he said. "There are widespread reports of looting, illegal checkpoints, arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned the country faces genocide and urged the Security Council to authorize the dispatch of 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers. That's expected to happen next week.
The U.N. blue berets will bolster the ineffective force of 2,500 African Union peacekeepers drawn from Cameroon, Chad, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
That's supposed to be boosted to a strength of 3,600 in early 2014, but even if that does transpire, few observers expect the force to impose any sort of security outside the capital.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned last week the security threat has expanded beyond CAR alone.
"If there's a vacuum and implosion, it will affect all the countries of the region -- that is to say, Chad, the Sudans, the Congo and Cameroon," he said in Paris.
Defense Minister Yves Le Drian Tuesday urged Djotodia's regime be replaced as soon as possible if order is to be restored.
He said France will deploy 1,000 troops in early December to reinforce the 420 already in Bangui, protecting the airport and French interests in Bangui.
Le Drian and Fabius both the U.N. Security Council needs to authorize international intervention before the French deployment will go ahead.
France has appeared reluctant to get involved in CAR even though Paris has intervened several times since 1960, the last time in 2006 when it supported Bozize, who'd seized power a year earlier in a coup, against northern rebels.
In recent years, France has adopted a largely hands-off policy regarding its former African colonies.
But in January Paris sent 1,400 troops, backed by fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships, into northern Mali to drive out al-Qaida-linked jihadists who had established a sanctuary.
The militants were expanding their operations across north and northwest Africa. The French, with African support, have dispersed the jihadists but not crushed them. They continue to operate and have established an affiliate as far south as oil-rich Nigeria.
