Disarmed to the teeth in Bangui
A first-hand report from Bangui, which includes:
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The CAR’s interim president, Catherine Samba-Panza, has few of the tools most heads of state rely on to restore order – the army is not allowed to carry guns and her administration has almost no political skills.
(Later) The latest internal peacekeeping crisis shines an unwelcome light on soldiers from Congo-Brazzaville. Human Rights Watch has documented a number of cases of torture, murder and abduction of locals by the Congolese in areas under their watch. In September the AU forces will change the colour of their helmets and become United Nations peacekeepers.
Link:http://mg.co.za/article/2014-06-05-d...eeth-in-bangui
The CAR ceasefire: a (very) small step towards stability
With the MSM focus being elsewhere I doubt few outside Africa noted diplomacy has ended with a multi-faction ceasefire agreement in Brazzaville:http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic.../#.U9JQFKORcdV
Needless to say some are sceptical that it can be effective:
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I see the ceasefire as a non-event,” said David Smith, director of South Africa-based media firm Okapi Consulting and an expert on the region. “Disarmament is not part of the deal, and that's what Central Africans want most.
New berets, no change otherwise
Hurrah? From VOA:
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A United Nations peacekeeping force will deploy Monday in the Central African Republic.....The Security Council authorized the force, known as MINUSCA, to take all necessary means to carry out its mandate in the CAR. For many in Bangui this means that the U.N. troops will not hesitate to use force against armed groups.... Most of the 6,000 African Union troops already in the CAR will join the new U.N. mission.....new troops from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia have recently arrived. According to the United Nations, a 400 member U.N. police force will be deployed in the coming weeks in Bangui.
A note of realism from MSF:
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It seems that forces will look different. But right now, we are not confident [in] their efficiency in the coming months in CAR..We have been noticing that although things are improving in Bangui in terms of security, it is not the case in the rest of the country..
Link:http://www.voanews.com/content/un-pe...c/2449591.html
The two thousand French troops are not part of the UN mission:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29213557
Do they have an exit plan?
MINUSCA prepares the ground for the same looters
A pungent comment by David Smith, director of South Africa-based media firm Okapi Consulting and an expert on the region:
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But if history teaches us anything, and it should, then Minusca is likely to be as successful as its numerous predecessors. From the time of Misab and Minurca…through Bonuca, Binuca, Fomuc, Fomac, Micopax, Misca and now Minusca we have, to a large extent, many of the same players trying to do the same thing all over again – stabilise the country and prepare the ground for presidential elections. The big problem is that MINUSCA is preparing the ground for, to a large extent, many of the same people who have been looting and pillaging the CAR for decades to take over once again.
The peacekeeping effort needs drastic surgery that includes a strong and lengthy mandate that help to create a new network of functionaries, politicians and professionals that can start building the institutions any normal country has for running a country and providing the services and infrastructural needs that have yet to be created in this shadow of a state.
My biggest fear concerning MINUSCA is that once the UN containers are packed up in a year, two years, three years from now, the same people, both inside and outside the country who have benefited from a culture of impunity will be free to carry on as they have been since founding father Barthelemy Boganda was killed in a plane crash in 1959. What will the next peacekeeping mission be called?
Link:http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic.../#.VBgUvVeRcdV
It's land ownership that matters
A fascinating backgrounder on CAR, on land ownership - an issue I don't recall being mentioned before. Here is one passage:
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Stare at the situation long enough and CAR’s problems can largely be whittled down to two issues: how the state hands out concessions and leases to individuals and corporations with vested interests; and how Bangui defines land that is “not put to proper use”—land that sits fallow or is not mined or logged quickly enough.
Link:http://gga.org/stories/editions/aif-...nciliation-1/?
UN report alleges child abuse by French troops
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A senior (Swedish) United Nations aid worker has been suspended for disclosing to prosecutors an internal report on the sexual abuse of children by French peacekeeping troops in the
Central African Republic. Sources close to the case said Anders Kompass passed the document to the French authorities because of the UN’s failure to take action to stop the abuse. The report documented the sexual exploitation of children as young as nine by French troops stationed in the country as part of international peacekeeping efforts.
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...nch-troops-car
Tentative Peace Reached in CAR
Maybe some hope for CAR (the size of Texas), which starts with:
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More than two years after rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) captured the country's capital Bangui and set off a cycle of retribution and ethnic cleansing, 10 groups in the war-torn nation have agreed to lay down their arms.
The agreement, reached Sunday, is the culmination of a national peace forum that began last week in Bangui and included civil society, youth, women, and local representatives. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon welcomed the decision and called for "its swift and full implementation."
Link:https://news.vice.com/article/tentat...utal-fighting?
A different viewpoint:https://www.opendemocracy.net/opense...d-winding-road
Nowt changes and patience is eroded
A lengthy report by a FP journalist on the realities outside Bangui, for the people and the armed groups:https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/28...-un-violence/?
It appears - once again - the French are tiring of engagement and if they withdraw the 'blue berets' will lose their most robust troops. Tired, why?
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France has intervened militarily five times since 1979 and maintained an active military presence for all but four years — 1999 to 2003 — during that period.
Interesting section on troops from the DRC:
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On the way back from meeting with the anti-Balaka fighters, my translator and I stumbled into a tense standoff between Congolese U.N. peacekeepers and armed youths of the Fulani ethnic group, from which many of the ex-Seleka fighters are drawn. (Given the abundance of armed men in Bambari and the fluid membership of armed groups there, it can be difficult to distinguish ex-Seleka fighters from gun-toting Fulani civilians.) The youths, some of whom brandished AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, were arguing bitterly with the peacekeepers, who remained remarkably serene in the face of superior firepower.
CAR: Fragile, failed and forlorn
Blue helmets and 'red lines' with attack helicopters in reserve
A rare BBC report on the CAR and the problems facing the UN peacekeepers, known as MINUSCA; with the faraway setting in Washington DC:
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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.
I was not aware MINUSCA had attack helicopters:
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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.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38967461
Since this conflict is often along Christian -v- Muslim lines, would President Trump remove funding?
Syria in focus; CAR is not
From MSF a report on the deterioration in CAR, in the countryside and in places previously unaffected:
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Last year, CAR had the second highest number of violent incidents in the world – second only to Syria
It appears few wish to help:
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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.
Link:https://www.msf.org.uk/article/car-p...survival-mode?
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
A NYT opinion on the CAR!
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
We're here for the diamonds, stay away
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?
Anyone else feel like we sidestepped into a William Gibson novel?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia...ve-been-set-up
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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.
UN soldiers safe, not the civilians
From Amnesty International and the report starts:
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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.
The UN soldiers were from Mauritania.
Link:https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...ts-in-alindao/
How rebels became kingmakers in the Central African Republic
Eleanor Beevor, an IISS analyst, has a commentary which opens with:
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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.
Link:https://www.iiss.org/blogs/analysis/...c-armed-groups