On Monday, the CAR’s top court gave final approval to the results of the July 30 referendum, in which 95% of voters favoured the changes.

The constitutional rewrite, fiercely criticised by the opposition, scraps the CAR’s two-term limit and extends the presidential mandate from five to seven years.

“The EU takes note of the results of the Constitutional Referendum in CAR,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said, in a social media post.

He expressed “concerns about the continued polarisation of the political context” and said: “The EU calls for more inclusive and transparent democratic procedures in CAR.”

Earlier, Washington had taken a tougher line, with a US State Department spokesman warning that the change “undercuts the country’s democratic procedures”.

One of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world, the landlocked CAR has been gripped by conflict and political turmoil for most of its history since independence from France in 1960.

In 2018, President Faustin Archange Touadera brought in Russia’s Wagner group to help train his armed forces, and two years later hired more Russian operatives as rebel groups advanced on the capital.

France, which in 2013 intervened to help stem a civil war flaring along sectarian lines, pulled out the last of its troops in December.