Paris Says EU Troops to Deploy in C. Africa Next Month

Troops from several EU countries will begin deploying in the strife-torn Central African Republic next month, a French official said Sunday.

"In March, in a few weeks, there will be in the Central African Republic several hundred troops coming from several countries of the European Union," the junior minister for European affairs, Thierry Repentin, told French media.

"It's a major step forward," he added.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced Friday that the bloc planned to send 1,000 troops to the former French colony, which has been engulfed in chaos for nearly a year. She did not give a timeline.

Repentin said he could not give a more precise deployment date "because there are still negotiations in each of the countries."

The commitment to the joint EUFOR force underscores the EU's "awareness that what happens in Africa concerns Europe", he said.

Besides France, five other European Union countries have proposed a "substantial" contribution to the EUFOR mission.

Georgia -- anxious to cement good ties with the EU -- could also supply up to 100 troops, diplomats said in Brussels.

Ashton has also approached Turkey for a contribution to the mission, a Turkish official said in Ankara on Sunday.

Spain is among other countries that may offer logistical, material or financial aid.

The new forces will add to 2,000 French troops and around 5,400 African troops already on the ground.

The impoverished country has been torn by bloody sectarian clashes since Muslim rebels ousted president Francois Bozize in March 2013 and replaced him with their leader Michel Djotodia, who was himself forced out last month.

But violence has continued unabated since then between Christian vigilantes and minority Muslims who have fled the capital in their thousands in search of safety.

A possible U.N. peacekeeping operation would require a green light from a reluctant African Union, as well as a U.N. Security Council resolution.