Amnesty International Press Release (20 Oct 2011)

Central African Republic: Civilians bear the brunt of decades of violence and abuses

Local and foreign armed groups in the CAR are still killing, abducting, torturing and raping civilians, as well as burning houses and looting property, Amnesty International said in a report released today.

The report Central African Republic – Action needed to end decades of abuse describes how CAR’s population has been terrorized for decades by armed groups who have been able to operate with virtual impunity.

Despite peace agreements and a fledgling Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration process, armed conflict continues to ravage the country resulting in civilian deaths and mass internal displacement.

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Central African Republic: Consolidated Appeal 2011 Mid-Year Review

In the midst of a still-fragile regional context, the Central African Republic (CAR) has achieved a significant step towards peace consolidation, with the peaceful holding of national elections in early 2011. In spite of the many claims put forward by the opposition regarding the legitimacy of the parliamentary election results, incumbent President Bozize was re-elected for a second term without major incidents. However, this important achievement has not yet brought the anticipated improvements for the vast majority of the CAR population.

In the north-west where the majority of the internally displaced people are located, little progress has been made towards building an environment conducive to durable returns. Similarly, CAR refugees in both Cameroon and Chad await further guarantees before returning to their home country. Whilst a comprehensive reintegration strategy has been agreed by the Government and its partners, no concrete steps have yet been taken in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process, in spite of the strong will of the Government to do so.

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IPIS publishes a report examining the presence, behaviour and motivation of the armed groups operating in CAR during 2008

The International Peace Information Service (IPIS), a research institution based in Belgium, has finished their third study in the IPIS mapping series, which focuses on the conflict motives of armed groups within the Central African Republic.

IPIS describes the country as “tormented by a multitude of armed actors” who “have one thing in common: each of them would be a weak opponent for any well-organised state, but then this is exactly what the country lacks.”

The research for the report was conducted in CAR at the end of 2008.

Further information

• The report is available for download here: IPIS – Mapping Conflict Motives in CAR (PDF, 1MB)
• The report is complemented by a series of interactive web maps exploring the different actors present in CAR, together with data on natural resources, ethnic groups and incidents. The maps are available on the IPIS website at www.ipisresearch.be
• Please continue reading for IPIS’s summary of the different armed groups operating in the country

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Highlights

• The Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) suspends its participation in the process leading up to the political dialogue.
• A barge crossing the Oubangui river in CAR, sank, killing 42.

Background and security

The APRD pulls out of the political dialogue
The President of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD), Jean-Jacques Démafouth said in a press release that his organisation had suspended its participation in the process leading up to the political dialogue. Mr. Démafouth has also stated that the APRD had withdrown from a ceasefire and a global peace agreement signed on 9 May and 21 June 2008. The APRD made that resolution because they disapprove parts of a proposed general amnesty law.
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Rebel excersizing in a training camp in north-eastern CAR.

Now that years of conflict in the Central African Republic are starting to wind down,  opportunities for economic recovery have begun to open up in many parts of the north.  There are still many challenges; principle among them road banditry which places a heavy burden on trade and local economies.  However, in spite all of this hardship, the people in the north have shown remarkable resilience.

In Paoua, for example, large proportions of the local and displaced populations are now working within cooperatives, women’s groups or other associations.  Also, since late 2007, people in many parts of the country have begun returning to their villages and rebuilding their houses and livelihoods, particularly in Birao,  around Kabo, and between Ouandago and Kaga-Bandoro.

With this accelerating return home, aid organisations are helping to create economic opportunities for communities that have been roiled by violence.  To that end, micro-credit programs and support to small farm cooperatives are now available in eleven places across the country.  Additionally, 48 kilometres of dirt roads have been rehabilitated so far this year and there are plans to work on an additional 282 kilometres.

Since restarting economic activity will be key to sustaining the Central African Republic’s fragile progress, many aid organisations have planned to focus their activities on the local economy for the rest of the year.  Programmes supporting farmers, herdsmen and fisherman will help strengthen the link between humanitarian and development assistance as well.

In Paoua, women communities receive help from the
Danish Refugee Council to set up small businesses.

Most recently, humanitarian organisations were called upon to assist people ravaged by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) near Obo on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They acted quickly to provide  protection, basic health and education services to a weakend population.  As in the north, these emergency activities will soon be linked with early recovery projects (in road rehabilitation, for example), so that the population can start re-building better lives.

Get more details in the 2008 Coordinated Aid Programme Mid-Year Review (PDF – 2.8 MB).

About 1,400 displaced people are living in the village of Kamba Kota (Ouham) in terrible health and security conditions. They fled their villages following attacks by armed bandits, who reportedly killed 37 people. The banditry victims come from Kambandja, Kassai and Kagoué II villages on the road to Ouogo to the north of Kamba Kota.

The joint mission of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA) who located these displaced people expressed concern about their health and security.

At the moment, these displaced people get water from the river and eat mainly cassava leaves. Their huts are made of branches and foliage. Access to health care is made difficult by the system of cost recovery applied by the local health center (patients must pay a fee). In spite of these challenges, the displaced are planning for the future: with the help of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), they started building a school which will soon be operational. Continue Reading »

Radhika Coomaraswamy, Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts concluded on Saturday a six-day mission to assess the conflict’s impact on children in CAR and Chad.

After a two day visit to Chad, Radhika Coomaraswamy came to CAR to meet young victims of abduction, and rebels suspected of recruiting child soldiers. She met with women communities, internally displaced people (IDPs), and victims of the conflict and of coupeurs de routes (Zaraguinas). Among the victimes, the SRSG met a young girl abducted by Coupeurs de Route two years ago in a neighbouring village. She was only liberated in March this year, when the Government forces attacked the bandits’ camp in Bilakaré, between Paoua, Bokaranga and Bozoum. By that time, her parents had fled violence, probably to Cameroun and she is now living with her displaced grandmother in Paoua.

However, despite the remaining insecurity, improvements have been achieved through the peace agreements signed between the Government and the Movement of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) last year and with the Popular Army for Unity and Democracy (APRD) last month. Continue Reading »

An upsurge in attacks by armed bandits in the north of the Central African Republic since early 2008 has made banditry the major cause of new displacement in the country. Up to a third of an estimated 300,000 people who have been forced out of their homes have fled from bandit attacks.

Groups of between 10 and 30 armed men roam the northern areas of the country, assaulting and killing travellers and villagers, kidnapping children and adults, looting property, and burning homes and entire villages. In a disturbing new trend in recent months, bandits burn down whole villages, often in revenge for resistance by village self-defence groups. Continue Reading »

(Anthony Morland, IRIN) – “Can you help me find my husband?” asked an elderly resident of this dusty, traumatised town in the northwest of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The old woman explained she had last seen him three months previously when he and his brother were kidnapped by bandits known as Zaraguina just outside Paoua.

Asked to pay a ransom to secure her husband’s release, the woman managed to raise three million CFA francs (about US$6,600) – a fantastic sum in a country where two-thirds of the population survive on less than a dollar a day – by selling the family’s livestock.

But those she paid either betrayed her or had no connection with the kidnappers; now destitute, she is still waiting to be reunited with her husband. Continue Reading »

It takes no less than six days of arduous travel to cover the 1,000km of dusty roads between the city of Bangui and the village of Obo in the far east of the Central African Republic. In a country where the state has little control beyond the capital city, the population of Obo cannot rely on the central government for the provision of basic healthcare, education or transportation infrastructure.

However, with the help of United Youth for Environmental Protection and Community Development (JUPEDEC), a local NGO, villagers have managed to build health centres, classrooms and bridges, and have established income-generating activities. Relying largely on natural resources and local work forces, JUPEDEC is contributing to the improvement of the living conditions of thousands of people. Continue Reading »

Abakar Sabone and Michel Djotodia, respectively spokesman and chairman of the rebel group UFDR (Union of Democratic Forces for the Rally) were released by the Beninese authorities on Tuesday. They were arrested in November 2006, after the Central African Republic state prosecutor issued an international search warrant. Their liberation could bode significant advancements in the peace negotiations between the CAR government and the rebels in the North East of the country.

A few days earlier on Saturday 16th, François Lonsény Fall, Representative of the UN Secretary General in CAR, met with Laurent Djim-Woei, delegated by the APRD (Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy) in order to encourage the participation of the Northwestern rebel forces to the inclusive political dialogue organized by the government.

These two developments are characteristic of the relative lull in the climate of violence that has devastated the north of the country. Continue Reading »

The UNICEF representation in the Central African Republic has just published their monthly report for November 2007. It contains an excellent overview on the current humanitarian, political and security situation, as well as a description of UNICEF’s projects in CAR. Continue Reading »

Amnesty International reports on the human rights abuses of “Zaraguinas”, road bandits operating in the north-west of CAR.

According to the report, they target mostly civilians, who already suffer from fighting between government and rebels troops in the area, and spread terror with kidnappings, rape and pillaging. The government is unable to protect the population. “Zaraguinas are often better equipped with automatic weapons and have better knowledge of the terrain than government forces”, mentions Amnesty’s Africa Programme Director.

Click here to read the AI report on the Zaraguinas