Why are they fighting in the Central African Republic? | Start Here

Let’s talk about the Central African Republic. The fighting there is so bad that more than 200,000 people have fled their homes since December. There’s a tug of war between two men — the president who just got himself re-elected in a messy vote and a former president who's under UN sanctions and wants his old job back. So why did an election stir things up? Who’s fighting who in the CAR? And why are the Russians in there? The Central African Republic is a former French colony that’s basically the same size as France. But where France has almost 70 million people, the CAR has less than five million. And while it has a lot of natural resources, the average person lives on less than $2 a day. Things were bad under colonial rule but independence in the CAR has also been a rough ride. The man meant to become the first president died in a dodgy plane crash. In the ’70s the CAR had a brutal leader who declared himself president for life, then emperor, before the French got rid of him. There have been coups, two civil wars and a handful of disappointing peace deals. So 60 years later the CAR is pretty much run by whoever has the most guns. There are maybe 20 militias who control two-thirds of the country and do pretty much whatever they like. Some of them started out with some kind of cause but many resorted to killing, extortion and fighting over resources. Now the main rivalry is often laid out as being between the Seleka, which is mostly made up of Muslim groups, and the Anti-balaka, who are mostly Christian fighters. But it’s not as simple as Muslims versus Christians. There are all kinds of shifting alliances and other local disputes in the mix. OK, to understand the fighting going on now we have to get into the fight between these two: President Faustin-Archange Touadera and former president Francois Bozize. At one point they were in the same government — Touadera was Bozize’s prime minister. So Bozize took power in a coup in 2003. And he’s been accused of having a hand in all sorts of atrocities, which he denies. Fast forward 10 years and Bozize’s overthrown by Seleka rebels. And he leaves the country. What followed were two years of conflict and chaos. The Seleka struggled to keep control. An alliance known as Anti-balaka emerged to fight the Seleka. It was made up of many Christian militias. Eventually France’s military stepped in and there was a peace deal between the government and some of the militias. They called elections and Touadera ended up winning. So in 2016 Touadera’s the president. Meanwhile Bozize’s in exile and he’s been accused of supporting Anti-balaka rebels, which is why the UN imposed sanctions on him. Now while Touadera was in office things did calm down a bit. But militias still controlled large parts of the country and the peace deal ended up falling apart. So in 2019 the government signed a new deal with 14 armed groups. The plan was to integrate some militia leaders into the government and fighters into the army. Things were looking up and the elections last year were supposed to mark a new start. And then Bozize came back on the scene. He returned to the CAR and wanted to run for president, but the Constitutional Court banned him, saying he failed to meet the standards of “good morality”. This time some Seleka and Anti-balaka factions put their differences aside and formed a new alliance called the Coalition of Patriots for Change. Many say Bozize is leading the rebels though he denies that. Now all of that happened before the elections in December. So when it came time to vote many people, especially in rebel-controlled areas, either couldn’t or were too scared to. But in the end Touadera was re-elected president. And even though opposition groups accused him of fraud, the Constitutional Court ruled that he won in the first round. You can imagine how Touadera’s enemies reacted. The CPC, that coalition of militias, stepped up their war. And people have been trying to escape. They’re running from murder, rape and kidnapping. Things are now so much worse in a country where a quarter of the population was already displaced. Right now the government is fighting a huge group of heavily armed and well-organised militias. So it’s relying on outside help to turn things around: 300 French soldiers, 11,000 UN peacekeeping troops, the Rwandan army’s in there. Russia too — they say, to train the CAR army. So a whole lot of outsiders, each with their own interests. The people of the CAR, though, have other concerns. People reckon the best way forward is to somehow revive that peace deal from 2019. To do that the president, the former president and all their allies need to come together. But that won’t be easy in a country with a lot of players — and too many guns. Al Jazeera is always monitoring what’s happening in the CAR so check our website for the latest and YouTube for reports from our correspondents on the ground. I’ll see you next week.

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 122,877

Rating: 4.8936448 out of 5

Keywords: al jazera, sangris, french soldiers fighting in africa, central african republic documentary, al jazeera english live, french army fighting in africa, central african republic, car french rule, bangui, starthere, french army combat footage, french soldiers combat, françois bozizé, start here, robert king, christian, french soldiers in heavy combat, peace deal, french army combat, fighting in the Central African, Al_Jazeera_English, al jazeera live, al jazeera, Al jazeera english

Id: l2jib-cLz8Y

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021