In December 2013, French General Vincent Desportes stated on Radio France Internationale: This is a much more complicated mission than in Mali, where the French armed forces had a simple mission, or at least a clear one, destroying a perfectly-identified and identifiable ennemy.
In an interview on 29 January, Peter Bouckaert, talking for Human Rights Watch, stated that the French had badly anticipated Anti-Balaka actions: The French though they could limit themselves to disarm the former rebels in a mission that seemed simple in the beginning and promised to quick success.