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Senior Russian legislator says CAR president’s resignation is step in right direction

MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - Russian presidential envoy for African affairs, Mikhail Margelov, has welcomed the resignation of the Central African Republic’s president, Michel Djotodia.

Margelov, the head of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, described the decision as “an important and positive step for achieving normalization in that part of Africa.”

He was speaking shortly after Djotodia and the country’s Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye decided to step down.

Margelov believes that Djotodia’s resignation is crucial to legitimating the joint peace-keeping mission of the African Union and France in that part of Africa. He added, though, that the issue on the agenda was far greater than the situation in an individual country.

Africa these days is faced with a choice between plunging into the abyss of conflicts and thereby suffering the plight of a continent of rogue states or setting an example of nation state construction, the way it happened in Mali, or following in the footsteps of presidents Omar al-Bashir and Idriss Deby, who managed to reconcile Chad and Sudan.

“At this point the Central African Republic still has an opportunity to stand next to the countries where the leadership, the army and the citizens restored the state to stability,” Margelov said.

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