The Central African Republic: $2.2 Billion Won’t Buy Peace
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The Central African Republic: $2.2 Billion Won’t Buy Peace
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
A rare BBC report on the CAR and the problems facing the UN peacekeepers, known as MINUSCA; with the faraway setting in Washington DC:I was not aware MINUSCA had attack helicopters:Quote:
Welcome to the world of the warlords. We may be seeing a lot more of them if President Trump keeps his promise to scale back American support for UN peacekeeping. Currently the US supplies 28.57% of the total budget for UN deployments.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38967461Quote:
The fact that UN attack helicopters were deployed at the weekend proves this. Not only in the CAR, but in trouble spots across the globe there will be warlords and beleaguered civilians watching what happens next.
Since this conflict is often along Christian -v- Muslim lines, would President Trump remove funding?
From MSF a report on the deterioration in CAR, in the countryside and in places previously unaffected:It appears few wish to help:Quote:
Last year, CAR had the second highest number of violent incidents in the world – second only to Syria
Link:https://www.msf.org.uk/article/car-p...survival-mode?Quote:
The United Nations estimates that more than two million people, almost half of the country’s inhabitants, depend on foreign aid. Around US$400 million is required: they haven't even been able to raise 13 percent of this figure.
There is a BBC News report from March 2015 (6 mins), by Fergal Keane, which illustrates how difficult the CAR is - for the UN peacekeepers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybHcjMcadTc
Crikey SWJ has an article on CAR! It is a brief overview. See:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...al-african-rep
The second article via an academic opinion website reminds the reader how desperate the CAR is:Link:https://theconversation.com/for-the-central-african-republic-there-will-be-no-peace-without-justice-81403?Quote:
It has a population of 4.6 million people. Since 2013, the country has been embroiled in a civil war that has left half the population in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and displaced nearly 1 million people. Half of those have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
This article appeared in the NYT on March 22nd and has now appeared on the SWJ Blog (which is no longer indexed on the Forum). The article apparently aroused some criticism.
Link to original NY column: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/central-african-republic-conflict.html? and SWJ Blog's commentary:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...rican-republic
After the reporting three Russian investigative reporters had been ambushed and killed there have been a few short reports, this one appears to be far better: 'Murdered Russian Journalists In Africa Were Onto Something Dangerous for Putin; They were on the trail of mercenaries with close ties to the Kremlin in a war-torn country full of diamonds and gold'
Link:https://www.thedailybeast.com/murder...ous-for-putin?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia...ve-been-set-up
Quote:
On the ground, for the benefit of their Russian employers the mercenaries can then “raid, seize, and exploit” natural resources, as Avramov and Trad put it.
From Amnesty International and the report starts:The UN soldiers were from Mauritania.Quote:
The United Nations must carry out a thorough investigation into UN peacekeeping troops’ response to a recent attack that killed as many as 100 civilians in a displaced persons camp in the Central African Republic, Amnesty International said today in a new report.
According to multiple eyewitnesses, UN peacekeepers did not engage an attack by an armed group but instead retreated in an armoured vehicle to their central base, leaving thousands of civilians unprotected at the camp in Alindao on 15 November.
An immediate and impartial inquiry must focus, in particular, on whether the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) failed in its duty to protect the lives of more than 18,000 people residing at the site.
Link:https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...ts-in-alindao/
From The Soufan Group:Link:https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbri...ican-republic/Quote:
- Earlier this month, fourteen armed groups from Central African Republic agreed to a peace agreement following talks in Khartoum, Sudan.
- The Central African Republic has been devastated by instability and widespread ethnic conflict since 2013 following a coup that same year.
- Government control does not extend beyond the capital and the humanitarian situation is dire, with nearly a half million refugees.
- There is a critical need to integrate opposing armed groups into a national army and ensure that each group has political representation.
Sadly this is all too optimistic from this faraway armchair.
Recently I spotted via YouTube a long film clip on Portuguese paratroopers fighting through a CAR village:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knqnPnlflLQ
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/1...rican-republicQuote:
Minusca, the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, sent peacekeepers to the site of the clashes, spokesperson Vladimir Monteiro told AFP. Its troops there had come under fire a day earlier, he added.
On Wednesday, the General Staff of the Portuguese Armed Forces said that paratroopers had deployed to Bambari, using its General Dynamics Pandur II wheeled armored vehicles for the first time in Africa.
On Thursday, the Portuguese “blue helmets spent five hours in direct combat” with UPC militants “with the objective of protecting civilians and restoring peace, interposing itself between the opposition group and the defenseless civilian population,” the General Staff said.
Eleanor Beevor, an IISS analyst, has a commentary which opens with:Link:https://www.iiss.org/blogs/analysis/...c-armed-groupsQuote:
The latest attempts by the government of the Central African Republic to reach an accommodation with armed groups are a disheartening repetition of a failed formula. The price of this limited calm will be high, warns Eleanor Beevor.