Central African Republic: quo vadis?

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been in one of its biggest conflicts since it acquired independence from France in 1960. Unfortunately, it is a state that has  only known poverty and violence, not having faced many periods of peace or development.

However, it is no exception like many other African countries enjoying great wealth, especially diamonds, gold, oil and uranium.

It plunged again into a major turbulence in 2013, when Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in most of the Christian-affiliated regions. From that moment, some militias, mostly Christian and designated anti-balaka, stood up to fight the Seleka.

In 2014 the Seleka handed over power to a transitional government under international pressure, but what followed were months of violence and the country became noticeably fragmented, despite the presence of a UN peacekeeping force and the French military . In fact, today, the Central African authorities control only a small part of the national territory.

The situation in this country is a humanitarian tragedy, especially when we observe a degree of violence out of control. Both the Christian majority and the Muslim minority have committed atrocious attacks on the population, not sparing even the elderly or children. According to FAO, half of the population is hungry, as internal conflict interferes with agricultural and livestock production in the country.

Portugal, which plays an important role in the UN mission (MINUSCA), currently has 159 military personnel, 156 of whom are army paratroopers and has been involved in "confrontations and attacks" of "armed groups or criminals operating in the CAR" , according to information provided by the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Bambari, located about 300 km from the capital Bangui is a city where the Portuguese contingent has been called to intervene more,  witnissing the escalating violence between rival militias, with particular emphasis on the Union for Peace in the Central Republic -African, one of the militias coming out of the former Selek rebellion (meanwhile fragmented).

The Portuguese force has tried to safeguard the population security in this part of the country, but despite the great bravery already demonstrated on several occasions, the mission has been very troubled and thorny.

As noted previously, CAR is very rich in diverse natural resources and has a large arable area, but it is also one of the poorest countries in the world.

According to data provided by the UN it's the country with the lowest level of human development and the average life expectancy is 51 years. As a result of the conflict, it has more than 600,000 homeless and the number of refugees has already exceeded 500.000.

Since independence the country has been led by dictators from the most diverse quarters, having gained particular prominence due to its bizarre regime Jean Bédel Bokassa (1966-1979). In his last three years, he was nominated to be Emperor and was even crowned with this title according to the precepts followed by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Regime changes have been very frequent and violent and in recent years, in addition to witnessing a conflict of religious nature, we also find that there are interests that involve the most powerful elites - schemes of diversion of funds, corruption, illegal exploitation of natural resources of the country, all bearing in mind their own advantage.

Also noteworthy were the intrusions from outside, where Joseph Kony, leader of the "Lord's Resistance Army" (the Ugandan warlord), who had to flee his country in 2008, has been terrorizing several regions of CAR, DRC and Sudan.

After the 2016 elections, we have noticed a country increasingly divided and difficult to control. I The government in practice can only control the capital Bangui. In the center and east of the country, the increasingly bloody conflict between the former Seleka and the anti-Balaka is noticeable, while in the southeast violence increased after the withdrawal of US special forces and Ugandan forces fighting the Kony rebel group. And finally, in the northwest, we watch ethnic conflict between farmers and livestock producers, an issue that is also common in other African countries, such as Nigeria and Tanzania.

Against this barbarous, cruel and inhuman background ... "quo vadis" CAR?

Even with more than 10,000 UN deployed troops, we do not envisage an ending  to this conflict in the near future.

Miguel Verde - Senior Consultant