PARIS (Sputnik) – French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Monday the official end of the Sangaris peacekeeping operation conducted in the capital of Central African Republic (CAR) Bangui.
"The page of the operation has been turned," Le Drian said, as quoted by Franceinfo.
Le Drian delivered a speech at a ceremony held at CAR’s M'poko military camp in the presence of local officials and foreign diplomats.
France sent more than 1,000 troops to its former colony in 2013 in a bid to quell an uprising by Muslim rebels who seized CAR’s capital. The operation, named Sangaris, was backed by the UN, which sent in a peacekeeping force the following year.