Fears of genocide in chaotic CAR
THE UN has warned that the Central African Republic is on the “verge of genocide” and commentators in the region describe a “massacre of the innocents as the world looks the other way”.
The warnings come as French officials say they are laying the groundwork for a bolstered military force in their former colony, adding capacity to the country’s single-runway airport and sending a warship carrying 350 troops, combat vehicles and logistics equipment to neighbouring Cameroon.
France already has about 450 troops in the Central African Republic, primarily to protect the airport in a country that has descended into near lawlessness after rebel groups overthrew the president, François Bozizé, in March.
The French government has promised a force of about 1 000 to bolster African Union troops.
The mineral-rich country has been plagued by ethnic rivalry, sectarian clashes, civil war and violent coups since it gained independence in 1960.
In March this year, a coalition of Muslim rebels, known as Seleka, seized the capital Bangui and ousted Bozizé, who was accused of neglecting the Muslim minority in the north and ignoring a previous powersharing deal. Seleka leader Michel Djotodia took over as president.
He announced in September that Seleka had been dissolved, but “many of the rebels refused to disarm and leave the militias as ordered but veered further out of control”, the Observer’s Africa correspondent, David Smith, reports.
Smith describes “unspeakable horrors” and a state of lawlessness with widespread looting, as well as arbitrary murders, torture and rapes committed by former Seleka rebels.
Christians in the country have in turn formed a selfdefence group called “antibalaka” or “anti-machete”. Anti-balaka attacks on Muslim rebels have “been no less vicious than [those] made by the Seleka”, says Al Jazeera.
The UN describes an unfolding humanitarian disaster, with an estimated 400 000 people (10% of the population) displaced because of the conflict.
The AU is in the process of deploying 3 600 troops to the region. A proposed UN Security Council resolution would send more troops and authorise them to use force to end the crisis. Unless the international community intervenes on a larger scale, the situation “threatens to destabilise the entire region”, according to the Independent.
Lewis Mudge, a Human Rights Watch researcher, urged the international community to take action to “prevent another Rwanda”. — theweek.co.uk