At least 280 killed in inter-communal clashes in Central African Republic

88m3

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Africa
UN: CAR violence displaces nearly one million

Fierce fighting has also restricted aid access to makeshift camp at the international airport, refugee agency says.
Violence in the Central African Republic has uprooted nearly a million people - a fifth of the population - and hampered aid efforts in the capital Bangui, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

A flare-up in violence between Muslim fighters and Christian militias has displaced more than 200,000 people in the past few weeks alone, leaving a total of 935,000 homeless, UNHCR said on Friday.

The number of people sheltering at a makeshift camp at the international airport has doubled in the past week to 100,000, but while the site lacks proper access to food and water, fierce fighting in nearby neighbourhoods has restricted aid access.

"Insecurity and chaos around the site... prevents us from doing any distribution," UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told a news conference in Geneva.

"It's a horrible situation. We have heard a lot about revenge attacks happening inside health centres, where armed elements have gone and attacked patients."

A Muslim rebel group, the Seleka, unleashed a wave of killing and looting after seizing power in March. The deployment of 1,600 French and nearly 4,000 African Union peacekeepers has done little to contain the tit-for-tat violence between religious communities.

Cutting services

In the riverside capital alone, more than 510,000 people have been displaced - equivalent to more than half the city's population, UNHCR said.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said it was cutting services to a minimum at its airport clinic after stray bullets killed three children and injured 40 people this week.

"We are not going to continue to put the lives of our personnel at risk," Lindis Hurum, its coordinator at the site, told the Reuters news agency. "A team composed of five of our 16 doctors will be left in place for cases of extreme emergency."

Many of the displaced and injured inside the airport camp said they feared they were being abandoned.

"I owe my life today, like hundreds of others here, to MSF [Doctors Without Borders]. But with this suspension of their activities, it will be a massacre," said resident Saint Cyr Lamaka.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/afric...ces-nearly-one-million-20141423127629749.html
 

Ikwa

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Fighting started again after Djotodia's resignation :lupe:
 

Blackking

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Unfortunately most of the world is catching up with this conflict just now, but it's really just the latest (and biggest) outburst of violence in many years. No, it's not originally over religion. Here's the deal: There are about 80 % christians in CAR, and 10 % muslims. Over the 60+ years of political chaos/poverty/whatever you want to call it in CAR, religion has NEVER, repeat, NEVER been an issue. It wasn't an issue as early as two years ago. We've had countless coup d'états, rebellions etc but it has NEVER been along religious lines. Granted, you've always had tensions in the North over land but the country is big enough (think France+Belgium) and underpopulated (4.5 mil) so that there's enough space for everybody.

What changed? Seleka the makeshift conglomerate of rebels, mercenaries, etc. who took power in March. It just so happens that the majority of Seleka are muslims, including Chadians and Sudanese people who don't even speak any local language. It also just so happens that when they were marching on Bangui they were pillaging, killing and raping nearly everyone, EXCEPT Muslims. So obviously at some point other centralafricans understood what was going on. Add to that that they were starting to impose bans on pork for example and stuff like that, and you understand where the religious aspect of the conflict comes from. It's not "right" to say that the "anti-balaka" groups are "Christians", they're originally just random people who wanted to protect their villages from assaillants. It's not like it's some of organized christian aarmy or whatever.

To make it clear: Seleka's actions is wha led to the religious aspect of the conflict, nothing else. People didn't even care taht much about religion there, but when foreign troops come into town and use religion as a tool, people are gonna react.



I'd rather have them than...no one. Or are you one of those who are happy to see Africans die as long as no foreign power is involved?



Hardly anything. The FOMAC forces never got to full capacity, and it's even worse because there's a Chadian regiment who is HEAVILLY suspected of playing both sides, since Seleka is backed by Chad. Let's not forget that France was ASKED to intervene by the CAR, the UN and...the AU. So instead of pointing the finger at France for its intervention, let's point the finger at those doing nothing. That includes most African countries, the AU, and the US (who voted against sending UN forces there).



Thanks for quoting me, been too busy following the events there to take time to share my thoughts on this. Indeed I'm from CAR, so I'm glad to give any info you guys might be interested in.

Regarding the whole Hollande and Sarkozy thing, from what I understood it's because Hollande was flying to Bangui afterwards, and there was no reason for Sarkozy to come along there.
Yeah I didn't know any of this shyt, so good info.

What are people trying to gain here.... land, political control.. or what?
 

88m3

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so what's the answer.... i can look later.

u can let me know quickly now if u like.

From what I take of it the short version is a minority backed by a foreign government took power in coup, the majority felt disenfranchised and uneasy about the situation and now here we are.
 

Blackking

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From what I take of it the short version is a minority backed by a foreign government took power in coup, the majority felt disenfranchised and uneasy about the situation and now here we are.
so in short..


Islam.
 
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