The UN Security Council on Monday imposed sanctions on Central African Republic (CAR) former rebel leader Abdoulaye Miskine, who last year was one of the signatories of a peace agreement between the government and armed groups.

Under the terms of the February 2019 accord, Miskine, founder and head of the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), was offered a position as an adviser to the new government.

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In the latest report by UN experts monitoring sanctions and an arms embargo imposed in 2013, the self-proclaimed general was said to be recruiting fighters.

Miskine had signed the peace agreement in Khartoum between CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the heads of 14 armed groups.

Under the deal, rebel leaders were given senior government positions with the purported aim of helping to cement peace, but Miskine never took the post he was offered, according to Bangui.

In November 2019, the CAR government said Miskine had been arrested in neighbouring Chad and demanded his extradition.

He has now been put under UN sanctions, which include an asset freeze and travel ban.

One of the world's poorest countries, the landlocked CAR has been mired in conflict for years.

Most of the country is in the hands of armed groups that claim to represent religious or ethnic communities, and often fight over the country's rich mineral resources.

Miskine set up the FDPC in 2004, when the country first plunged into civil war, and gave himself the rank of general.

He joined the coalition of mainly Muslim militias that in 2013 overthrew then-President Francois Bozize - a revolt that sparked French military intervention and the holding of elections for a successor.

Since then, the CAR has been devastated by fighting between numerous rebel groups and government forces and also between the armed groups themselves.

More than a quarter of the 4.7 million population have fled their homes.