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📄 APA-0025 Partially Implemented

Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic (APPR-RCA / Khartoum Accord)

Also known as: APPR (Khartoum Accord)

Country
Central African Republic
Region
Central Africa
Date signed
6 February 2019
Type
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Mediator(s)
African Union (lead), United Nations, facilitated in Khartoum (Sudan, Russia)

The eighth and most comprehensive CAR settlement, signed between the government and fourteen armed groups: inclusive government, mixed security units, DDR and transitional justice — partially implemented, with major signatories defecting to the CPC rebellion in 2020.

Conflict Background

After the Bangui Forum and a string of failed local ceasefires, the AU-led African Initiative convened the government and all major armed groups in Khartoum, producing the APPR with unusual signatory breadth.

Negotiation Context

The agreement bet on incorporation: armed-group representation in government and mixed brigades in exchange for demobilisation — a bargain several principal factions abandoned when electoral politics reopened the presidency question in late 2020.

Parties

  • Government of CAR
  • 14 armed groups (incl. FPRC, UPC, MPC, anti-balaka wings, 3R)

Mediators & Guarantors

Mediators
  • · African Union (lead)
  • · United Nations
  • · facilitated in Khartoum (Sudan, Russia)
Guarantors
  • · African Union
  • · United Nations (MINUSCA)
  • · ECCAS

Key Provisions

Inclusive government with armed-group representation
Special Mixed Security Units (USMS) combining state and group elements
DDR and disbandment of armed groups
Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission
National implementation follow-up architecture with AU/UN guarantee

Implementation

Partially implemented and formally in force: the CPC rebellion broke its core, but the government and guarantors continue to process returning factions through APPR mechanisms, with violence increasingly concentrated in border peripheries.

Timeline

  1. 2019-02-06
    Initialled in Khartoum; signed in Bangui
  2. 2019-03
    Inclusive government formed with armed-group ministers
  3. 2020-12
    Six signatory groups form the CPC and attack ahead of elections; core breach
  4. 2021–2023
    Government counteroffensive with Rwandan and Wagner support; several groups dissolve or fragment
  5. 2023–2025
    Partial revival: successive factions rejoin disarmament; violence localises but persists in border zones

Challenges

  • Electoral cycle destroyed the incorporation bargain within two years
  • External security partnerships (Wagner) displaced the agreement's own security instruments
  • DDR chronically underfunded; USMS units patchy
  • Guarantors split over enforcement responses to violations

Outcomes

  • Broadest signatory base of any CAR settlement; remains the recognised framework to which defecting groups return
  • Reduced national-scale offensives; several groups formally dissolved (2023–2025)
  • Its follow-up architecture survived a major armed challenge — rare among CAR accords

Lessons

  • Standing re-entry mechanisms extend an agreement's life beyond first breach
  • External force substitution weakens incentives to build the agreement's own security provisions
  • Elections without pre-agreed rules for incumbent–signatory competition break incorporation bargains

Related CRCA Resources

References

  • Accord Politique pour la Paix et la Réconciliation en RCA (2019).
  • MINUSCA and AU implementation reporting (2019–2025).