Last week, the President of the Central African Republic, His Excellency Professor Faustin Archange Touadéra, signed the National Defence Policy and the National Defence Strategy, documents of strategic importance in the process of modernization of the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic.

Over the last year, experts from the CAR Armed Forces (FACA), MINUSCA and EUTM RCA have been participating in working groups organized to develop these documents, as part of the Security Sector Reform (SSR) process coordinated by MINUSCA, to ensure coherent integrated support to the RCA government and its armed forces.

The Advisory Pillar of EUTM RCA has a long history of working together with their CAR counterparts on regulatory and doctrine documents for the governance of FACA. This includes next to the Defence Sector Reform (DSR) strategy and the National Defence Plan (NDP), the Military Programming Law (2019–23), the Military Justice Code, the Law on the General Statute of the Military and the decrees on the creation of FACA Military Schools. This work may not be highly visible, but it is essential to provide structure and guidance to future activities. 

EUTM RCA

EUTM RCA started on 16 July 2016 at the request of the CAR Government, under the framework of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The mission’s mandate runs until 19 September 2025.

The main objective of the mission is to support the build-up of a modernised, effective, credible, ethnically balanced and democratically accountable FACA (Central African armed forces).

The mission contributes to the reform of the defence sector within a wider Security Sector Reform (SSR), in close coordination with the EU Delegation, the EU civilian advisory mission (EUAM CAR), as well as other international support missions, especially the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).