Repubblica Centrafricana, torna la violenza: almeno 20 civili uccisi e 90 feriti

Corriere della Sera
Almeno 20 civili uccisi tra cui un parroco, altri due arsi vivi per vendetta. 90 feriti.
Questo è il tragico bilancio della nuova ondata di violenza settaria che il 1° maggio ha insanguinato la Repubblica Centrafricana.

Il tutto, come sempre, sotto gli occhi della Minusca, la missione delle Nazioni Unite, presente nel paese dal 15 settembre 2014 e peraltro accusata di violenze sessuali.
La violenza è esplosa dopo che le forze di sicurezza sono entrate nel quartiere PK5 della capitale Bangui per arrestare un membro di un gruppo armato di “autodifesa”.
Il gruppo ha reagito, aprendo il fuoco contro le forze di sicurezza e poi, per vendicare l’arresto, i suoi miliziani hanno assaltato la chiesa di Nostra madre di Fatima, dove era in corso la messa. Ecco una testimonianza diretta:
“Abbiamo sentito i primi colpi di arma da fuoco alle 11. Poi hanno iniziato con le granate. Ci siamo riparati dietro l’altare. Intorno a noi c’erano persone a terra, sanguinanti. I ragazzi hanno aperto un varco nel muro posteriore della chiesa e siamo riusciti a fuggire. Ma mentre fuggivamo, vedevamo tanti ragazzi armati arrivare dal quartiere PK5”.

Il parroco Toungoumalé Baba è stato ucciso. Aveva cercato di chiamare aiuto ma non si era fatto vivo nessuno e per lui non c’è stata via di scampo. I caschi blu delle Nazioni Unite sono arrivati due ore dopo.

Ore dopo, due civili musulmani sono stati arsi vivi per vendetta.

Da un mese, dopo un periodo di assenza di scontri, la Repubblica Centrafricana è nuovamente precipitata nell’orrore. Quell’orrore con cui la popolazione del paese convive dalla fine del 2013 (nella foto i resti di un villaggio assaltato nel 2014).

Il 3 aprile un attacco delle milizie cristiane anti-balaka contro la base provvisoria della Minusca di Tagbara aveva causato il ferimento di 11 caschi blu e la morte di 22 aggressori.

Riccardo Noury

Central African Republic: Over 6,000 Child Soldiers May Be Involved in Fighting, UN Says

All Africa
More than 6,000 child soldiers may now be involved in the conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), with their numbers growing as fighting pits community against community in clashes that have taken on increasingly sectarian overtones, the United Nations reported today.

Recruitment is happening on all sides, with reasons including poverty, despair, desire for revenge, and the general lack of options for children, and there have been many reports of girls being used as sex slaves, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a news briefing in Geneva, stressing her agency's efforts to free all child soldiers.

Thousands of people in CAR are estimated to have been killed, nearly 1 million driven from their homes, and 2.2 million, about half the population, need humanitarian aid in a conflict which erupted when mainly Muslim Séléka rebels launched attacks a year ago, and has recently taken on increasingly Muslim versus Christian overtones as militias known as anti-balaka (anti-machete), who are mainly Christians, take up arms.

Ms. Mercado said 23 children aged between 14 and 17 years were released from armed groups in Bangui, the capital, yesterday, with many more identified for release in the coming days, after an agreement between UN officials and the transitional authorities to allow unimpeded access to all military bases so that children with the ex-Séléka/national forces can be released to child protection actors.

The children, who include six girls, have been taken from a military base to a UNICEF-supported Transit and Orientation Centre.

Since last May, UNICEF and its partners have secured the release of 229 children associated with various armed groups in CAR.

The number of child soldiers is believed to have risen considerably due to the recent escalation in fighting and the emergence of self-defence groups such as the anti-balaka, mounting from 2,000 before the current wave of clashes to more than 6,000 now.

Meanwhile the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported that insecurity is impeding the movement of convoys beyond Bangui, with no trucks able to reach Bozoum for the past 15 days.

After repeated delays due to clashes and checkpoints, WFP was finally able to send through four trucks to Bossangoa on 14 January, spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told the briefing.

Due to a combination of factors, some 400 trucks, including 48 WFP trucks with food and other humanitarian goods, are stuck at the border with Cameroon.

WFP cereal stocks in Bangui are no longer sufficient and the agency will have to cut rations from 20 January and suspend distributions outside of Bangui airport, where 100,000 people have sought refuge, and Bossangoa.

Ms. Byrs stressed that current funding is insufficient to cover CAR needs, with the shortfall now standing at $95 million - 88 per cent of the resources needed for food, nutrition, and emergency school meals.

After March, WFP will no longer be able to respond, and additional commitments are required now to avoid cutting rations or suspending aid in an already tense and volatile context.

The rainy season, due in April, will aggravate already poor road conditions, with movement beyond the capital and main towns being extremely reduced, coinciding with the peak of the lean season, when the impact of the current crisis on household food security and nutrition will be even further exacerbated, and access to food further strained by additional peaks in food prices.

It is imperative to pre-position stocks in strategic locations by April to ensure that WFP is in a position to respond, Ms. Byrs added.

The UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA) reported today that an election to fill the position of the Head of State of Transition is expected to take place next on Monday, and along with its regional and international partners, the Office is providing advice and other support to the process.

Last week, transitional President Michel Djotodia and Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye, who came to power after Séléka fighters drove then-President François Bozizé out of the country in March, resigned. UN officials have said this has opened a new opportunity.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative in CAR, Babacar Gaye, is calling on the country's people and leaders to maintain calm and show maturity at this critical juncture.

Also on Monday, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC) will hold a special session on CAR.

United Nations Must Tackle the Looming Human Catastrophe in the Central African Republic

Amnesty International
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The United Nations must take full account of the human catastrophe of epic proportions unfolding in the Central African Republic (CAR) whenconsidering the options presented by the U.N. Secretary-General on peacekeeping in that country, Amnesty International said.

The situation is worsening on a daily basis in CAR, with extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls widely committed with total impunity by members of the security forces and armed groups alike.

"The crisis is spinning out of control, despite the fact that it has been ignored by the international community for far too long," said Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International. "People are dying in the Central African Republic as we speak, and action is needed as a matter of utmost urgency. There is no time to delay."

In an Oct. 30 report, Amnesty International denounced large-scale human rights violations and abuses in CAR. Satellite images the organization published a week later showed the shocking aftermath of abuses, including hundreds of homes that had been burnt to the ground and evidence of mass internal displacement.

The security situation has quickly deteriorated since December 2012, when a coalition of armed groups called Seleka launched an offensive against former President Francois Bozizé. Since Seleka seized power in March, violence by their fighters and armed opposition groups has spiraled out of control in what has now become a largely lawless country.

Tensions and clashes between different ethnic and religious communities are on the rise. The majority of the population is Christian - as was former president Bozizé. The current President Michel Djotodia and most members of the security forces are Muslim, as are former Seleka fighters, who are mostly from the north-east and from neighboring Chad and Sudan.

CAR is awash with small arms and light weapons, with up to 20,000 former Seleka fighters, as well as other armed groups, having easy access to weaponry. Even in the capital Bangui, daytime attacks by armed groups, including killings by former Seleka fighters and current members of the security forces, are more and more common.

In July 2013, the African Union declared that it would deploy some 3,500 soldiers to protect civilians in CAR. By the end of October, approximately 2,600 of these troops have been deployed. France also has troops in CAR and has just announced the deployment of additional forces.

"It is of vital importance that the U.N. work with other members of the international community, in particular, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States, and France to ensure that immediate concrete measures are put in place to establish law and order in the country," said Shetty. "The international community must take action before it is too late to ensure that the abuses come to an end and that CAR isn’t catapulted into the international spotlight because it became a human catastrophe."

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

Central African Republic: Over 2,000 Children Recruited By Forces, UN Reports

All Africa

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today said more than 2,000 boys and girls have been recruited by armed forces in the Central African Republic since the latest wave of violence in the country began in December.

In a news release, UNICEF said it had clear evidence of continuing recruitment of children, and warned that such practices represent a grave violation of international law.

"Recruiting children is both morally unacceptable and prohibited under international law," said UNICEF's Representative in the country, Souleymane Diabaté. "We have called on the new leadership in CAR to ensure that all children associated with armed groups should be released immediately and protected from further violations."

Mr. Diabaté said the new authorities in the capital, Bangui, have shown their intentions to identify and release children among the ranks of armed groups, and stressed that UNICEF is committed to working with them to ensure that new recruitments stop immediately and that child soldiers are returned to their families.

UNICEF underlined that the current tension, insecurity and a lack of access by humanitarian workers to large parts of the country means that children are at greater risk than ever. However, it noted that only 25 per cent of the funds required to respond to the crisis have been received so far.

At least 4.1 million people, almost half of whom are children, have been directly affected by the crisis. Since December, 1.2 million people have been cut off from essential services, and human rights violations have continued even after the Séléka rebel coalition seized power on 24 March.

In addition, more than 37,000 people have fled the country in the past four months due to the violence. Most displaced persons have found asylum in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while other have gone to Chad and Cameroon.

The High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today visited CAR refugees in a remote area of northern DRC, where his office (UNHCR) and its partners are providing assistance and protection.

"The needs of the refugees are significant, but access to the area is difficult," UNHCR Spokesperson Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. "We have been registering the refugees, distributing aid, setting up emergency shelters and working with partner organizations to provide health and education support."

Ms. Fleming added that UNHCR is extremely concerned about regional stability, given the situation in eastern DRC and the crises in the CAR and Sudan's Darfur region.

Tomorrow, Mr. Guterres will meet with Congolese President Joseph Kabila to discuss the situation of the CAR refugees and UNHCR's other work in the country.