Africa’s forgotten conflict: BBC reporter Mike Thomson presents a twenty-minute in-depth report on the Central African Republic on BBC TV.

From the BBC World website:

“Reporter Mike Thomson travels deep into the heart of the Central African Republic to discover poverty and war in a country which has been sliding backwards for 50 years. Yet its crisis has been largely overlooked by the international community.”

Catch the special on BBC World at the following times

• GMT (UK): 2:30am on 31 January, 1:30pm and 9:30pm on 1 February, and 3:30am on 2 February.
• EST (US/Canada): 9:30pm on 30 January; 8:30am, 4:30pm and 10:30pm on 1 February.

More BBC reports

Mike Thomson visited CAR in late 2008. His earlier reports for the BBC Today Programme and related articles on the BBC News website can be found here:

Bossangoa (5 Dec 2008) – “Warlord trial to hear tales of horror”. As the Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba awaits trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for atrocities he is accused of committing in CAR in 2002/3, Mike Thomson interviews some of his alleged victims. (video)

Paoua (15 Dec 2008) – “Deserted villages and abandoned lives”. After decades of neglect, rebels and gangs of armed bandits roam in the north-west of CAR, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and livelihoods. (article with video, or listen to the radio report)

Birao (16 Dec 2008) – “A country awash with guns”. As peace talks get under way in CAR, armed groups proliferate throughout the remote regions of the country: Government troops, peace-keepers from the neighbouring countries and the European Union, self-defence groups, rebels, road bandits and the LRA. (article, or listen to the radio report)

Bozoum (17 Dec 2008) – “Humanitarian crisis in central Africa”. Years of neglect have caused endemic violence in north-west CAR. With little or no health care, life expectancy has fallen to just 42, and aid agencies are struggling to help. (article, or listen to the radio report)

Goroumo (18 Dec 2008) – “Massacre haunts CAR villagers”. Eyewitnesses describe the moment when bandits marched into a small village in the north-west, rounded up and massacred every man and boy they could find. (article with video, or listen to the radio report)

Kaga-Bandoro (19 Dec 2008) – “Rare audience with CAR rebel”. Mike Thomson meets a senior commander of the APRD, one of the main rebel groups operating in north CAR, fighting against ‘poverty, insecurity and bad government’. (article, or listen to the radio report)