France has deployed Saturday all of the soldiers in 1200 she announced sending in Central and the military increased their patrols in Bangui and several roads in the country.

"The operation has begun insofar as the French forces that were already present at Bangui airport with a mandate limited to protect that airport and our nationals last night started patrols in Bangui,"LE DRIAN told RFI on Friday morning.The intervention's aims are to establish "minimum security, allowing a humanitarian intervention to start", which will mean "making the streets safe, some principal itineraries that allow people to at least get to hospital", and allow "the African force to be in a position to assure the security of the country ahead of a political transition".

French President François Hollande on Thursday announced an "immediate" military intervention in the CAR, where hundreds of people have been killed as violence by rebel armed groups takes on a Christian-Muslim sectarian aspect.