Tag Archives: Central African Republic

Armed groups occupy Central African Republic schools

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The armed group took over the school little by little. One day when a fighter came to collect and burn the students’ desks, teacher Thiernd Ouronfei decided he’d had enough.

“I said he must put the kids’ desks down. They hit me in the head with a knife and I was sent to the hospital for at least a week,” he said. Even now, after the school in Central African Republic was liberated, parents are scared to send their children, he told The Associated Press.

Some 20 percent of schools in Central African Republic are not functioning, and students’ and teachers’ lives are threatened as armed groups have looted, occupied and damaged the properties in the conflict-torn country, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. An education is a rare opportunity for children in the impoverished country to get ahead.

“We’re talking about a lost generation. These are students who aren’t going to get those years back,” said Lewis Mudge, the group’s Africa researcher and co-author of the report. “Many rebels have also been quite open that they are going to reoccupy schools during the upcoming rainy season.”

Central African Republic descended into conflict in 2013 when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew the Christian president. The Christian anti-Balaka militia retaliated with a backlash against Muslim civilians.

While the country held successful democratic elections last year, many remote areas remain outside the government’s control. Violence by armed groups has risen sharply since October. Various armed groups have used the schools as bases for years.

Human Rights Watch, which visited schools between November and January and interviewed children and teachers as well as fighters, has called on the country’s government and the United Nations to do more to ensure that armed groups stay far away from classrooms. In some cases, fighters may vacate a school, but still operate meters away.

One student in Ngadja in Ouaka province told Human Rights Watch that he feared for his life after Seleka fighters occupied a nearby school on and off for more than two years.

“I often ask myself, ‘Should I even bother to go to school? Is it worth the risk?'” he said.

The Seleka rebels for months used the school director’s office as a prison, teachers in Ngadja told the rights group.

“I’m afraid of the Seleka hanging around the school. So I can’t go, and that makes me just as uneducated as an animal,” a 15-year-old student in Mbres, Nana Grebizi province, told the rights group. In Mbali, Ouham province, a 16-year-old said classes finally started again in November after three years, “but they had burned all the books, and we don’t have any left.”

An 18-year-old student said he had lost four years of his life because he wasn’t able to study. “I want to be a doctor, but the Seleka are blocking my future.”

In November, the U.N. humanitarian office estimated that while 2,336 schools in Central African Republic were operational, at least 461 were not because of insecurity, destruction, occupation and lack of teachers.

Central African Republic’s government in 2015 committed to protecting schools from attack and military use and permitted U.N. forces to clear them. Progress was made but then undermined when U.N., African Union and French forces in some cases occupied schools themselves, Human Rights Watch said. Once U.N. officials were informed, they left, the group said.

“If there are to be any meaningful attempts at peace or at reconciliation, it’s important to restart these structures that provide a degree of normalcy,” Mudge said.

 

Source: AFP

UN peacekeepers kill four civilians in Central African Republic.

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UN peacekeepers killed four civilians in western Central African Republic, CAR, on Friday.

The Bangladeshi soldiers of the UN peacekeeping Mission in CAR (MINUSCA) fired into a crowd of residents in the town of Bouar.

The residents were seeking refuge at the MINUSCA base in Bouar following rumours of an impending attack by an armed group, Benjamin Kaggama, a lawmaker from Bouar, told dpa.

The UN said it was launching an investigation into the deaths.

MINUSCA spokesman, Vladimir Moteiro, said: “peacekeepers prevented an incursion by a crowd of civilians heading towards their base.

“Under the impression that this was an incursion, and since the civilians wanted to get access to the ammunition depot of the base, those who have the responsibility to protect this depot fired in the air.”

Peace in the diamond-rich but poverty-stricken nation has been volatile since inter-religious violence broke out between Muslim and Christian rebel groups in 2013.

 

Source: NAN

President Buhari Welcomes Central African Support Against Boko Haram

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President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration will partner the 11-member Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) to rid Nigeria and its neighbours of the menace of Boko Haram.

 

The president made the statement in Abuja on Friday when he received a message from President Obiang Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.

 

Buhari said he welcomed the effort to organise a joint meeting between ECCAS and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a view to coordinating their responses to the threat of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin area.

 

He noted the role of Mbasogo in bringing about the proposed summit and described the effort as very commendable.

 

Buhari said he was deeply touched by the commitment shown in Nigeria’s security by Equatorial Guinea and gave assurances of his commitment to enhancing security and bilateral relations between the two countries.

 

The Special Envoy of the Equatorial Guinean President, Mr Juan Nchuchuma, who brought the message, said his president was prepared to expand and share security intelligence and information with Nigeria to help in the war against corruption and terrorism.

 

He also requested for a meeting of the security chiefs from both countries.

 

 

(NAN)

Congolese Troops To Withdraw From Central African Force – UN

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Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN Mission in Central African Republic, said on Sunday that DR Congo troops are withdrawing after they failed an internal assessment in Bangui.

 

“It is confirmed that the Congolese unit will withdraw from MINUSCA, the contingent will leave and not be replaced.’’

 

The historically turbulent former French colony suffered an intensification of violence in 2013 when mostly Muslim rebels known as Seleka seized power in a coup.

 

Since then, militias drawn from the Christian majority have launched reprisal attacks and thousands of people have been killed and around a million displaced despite efforts by UN and French peacekeepers to restore order.

 

He said a further announcement would be made next week, but declined to give an immediate comment whether the withdrawal could jeopardise security.

 

In August, three Congolese peacekeepers in Central African Republic were accused of raping three female civilians, including one minor.

 

Congolese Justice Minister, Alexis Thambwe, said at the time the allegations would be investigated.

 

It was not immediately clear whether such allegations were the main factor behind the decision to withdraw Congolese troops.
A UN spokesperson in New York earlier said that the UN review of Congolese troops assessed the equipment, the vetting procedures and overall preparedness of the contingent.

 

This month, the UN said it was investigating new allegations of sexual abuse of minors by peacekeepers.

 

UN noted that there are 809 Congolese troops and 123 police deployed as part of the 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, known as MINUSCA.

 

Paris also planned to draw down its troops in the country, which originally numbered around 2,000, once a transition back to democracy is complete.

 

 

 

(Reuters/NAN)

Pope Meets Muslims In Mosque In Besieged Area Of Central African Republic

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Pope Francis ventured into one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods on Monday to beg Christians and Muslims to end a spiral of hate, vendetta and bloodshed that has killed thousands over the past three years. Under heavy security, Francis crossed into the PK5 neighborhood where the city of Bangui’s Muslims have been unable to leave for months because of the armed Christian militia fighters who surround the capital city’s perimeter. The pope traveled in his open-air vehicle through the neighborhood despite the security risks. Armed U.N. peacekeepers stood guard in the minarets of the mosque.

Those who claim to believe in God must also be men and women of peace.

Pope Francis, after a speech by Imam Tidiani Moussa Naibi, one of the local religious leaders trying to foster dialogue.

About 200 men seated inside the mosque welcomed Francis, who sat on a sofa. In comments to the chief imam, Francis insisted that Muslims and Christians are brothers and must behave as such. Francis removed his shoes, bowed his head and stood silently at the mihrab, or area of the mosque that faces the holy Muslim city of Mecca. The pope’s visit to the mosque marked the highlight of his three-nation African tour, with previous stops in Kenya and Uganda.

Credit: Yahoo

Pope Hints Central African Republic Visit Could Be Cancelled

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Pope Francis indicated on Sunday that his planned visit to the Central African Republic this month could be cancelled if violence between Christians and Muslims there worsens.

Speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, he called for an end to the “cycle of violence” in the country he is scheduled to visit Nov. 28-29 as part of a trip that will also take him to Kenya and Uganda.

Francis spoke of the “trip I hope to be able to make to that nation”. He has previously simply said he would go.

A senior Vatican source said the phrasing was chosen because of the violence in the capital Bangui, where the pope is scheduled to visit a mosque in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods.

“If the situation worsens, he will not be able to go and he is aware of that,” the source said.

Credit: Reuters

Scores Killed in Latest Central Africa Violence

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central-african-republic-violence

At least six people have been killed and hundreds forced to flee their homes after violence involving the “anti-balaka” militia broke out in the capital of the Central African Republic.

Clashes in the capital on Wednesday pitting anti-balaka fighters against soldiers from the country’s newly deployed UN mission left three militia members dead and four peacekeepers wounded, officials said.

The fighting broke out on the main road to Bangui’s airport when peacekeepers attempted to remove an anti-balaka barricade.
“The anti-balaka set fire to 22 houses. Three people were killed, including two burned alive in their homes,” said Joseph Tagbale, mayor of the district.

Samba Panza’s transitional government said that the increase in violence in the city, in which more than a dozen people have now been killed, was part of a plot to destabilise her administration.

The country was plunged into chaos when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country in March 2013, toppling President Francois Bozize.

Seleka’s rule was impaired by abuses that prompted a backlash from the mostly Christian anti-balaka militia.

Michel Djotodia, Seleka’s leader, bowed to international pressure and went into exile in January.

 

 

Christian Militia calls for Central Africa President’s Resignation

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The Christian-dominated anti-balaka militia in the Central African Republic has demanded the country’s president resign and asked its members to quit the transitional government, one of their chiefs told AFP on Monday.

 The 48-hour ultimatum to President Catherine Samba Panza came after a media report that $10 million (7.9 million euros) of Angolan aid had been pilfered.

“The coordinators of the anti-balaka movement are of the view that the transitional authorities no longer inspire confidence and ask all its representatives in government and in the cabinet of the prime minister to resign,” Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, the national coordinator, told AFP.

The CAR, an impoverished former French colony, has been wracked by coups, unrest and misrule since it gained independence.

The country plunged into fresh unrest and bloodletting after a coup last year which felled president Francois Bozize, a former army chief who himself seized power a decade earlier.

Human rights abuses against civilians by mainly Muslim former rebels from the Seleka alliance and vengeful militias from the Christian majority have claimed thousands of lives since March 2013 and displaced more than a quarter of the population of 4.6 million people.

A transitional government was formed at the end of August comprising representatives of civil society, political parties and the Seleka and anti-balaka alliances.

Two ministers close to the anti-balaka movement hold the tourism and environment portfolios.

“The anti-balaka movement gives (President Samba Panza) 48 hours to step down,” the national coordinator added, without specifying when the deadline ended.

The president, who was appointed in January, has denied siphoning off Angolan funds. She has been struggling to bring peace to the country and heal wounds opened by the bloodletting.