Portico Press

As a world seems on the brink of renewed conflict, one country stands out among the rest as one where conflict has never left.  The Central African Republic, hereinafter referred only as the CAR, has for the past five decades been subject to a litany of civil issues that garnered the attention of the UN and the international community.  In 2014 this attention prompted a shift from civil war to a UN administered transitional government until the elections in 2015. The formal economy grew exponentially, institutions were strengthened, and the forecast seemed shaky but optimistic.  The current situation is less stable; diplomatic ties to Russia, constitutional amendments to extend presidential terms and powers, a receding export markets, the list goes on.  To understand the systemic violence plaguing the CAR we need to look back to the origins of ongoing conflict.

The traditional divides within the CAR exist between a number of ethnic and religious groups, the largest being the Sara-Kaba and the Yakoma.  The transition of power in 1993 would be marked as the last democratic manifestation of CAR’s governance, until the UN backed elections in 2015.  The 1993 election saw the incumbent government of Kolingba, an ethnically Yakoma politician, lose to Patasse who was ethnically Sara.  The incoming government sought to purge the governing systems of Yakoma influence, which they argued was a result of corruption in the past government.  

Ethnic tensions rose in the years following the election and began to undermine the country’s confidence in the government, eventually causing the “Bangui Agreements” signed in 1997.  The agreement approved the deployment of inter-African military support which would later be replaced by the presence of a UN peacekeeping force, under the acronym MINURCA.  Failed coup attempts in 1998 destabilized the government further until the successful coup d’etat of Bozize in 2003.  The CAR Bush War officially began in 2004 as rebel forces arose to oppose the Bozize government.  

Emerging from the CAR’s northeastern region a rebel group under the name of “Seleka” rose to counter Bozize influence.  During this period the current president Touadera was the prime minister in Bozize’s cabinet from 2008 until the collapse of the government in 2013. An interim government was established under the leadership of Michel Djotobia.  Djotobia had been a founder of Seleka and was a high ranking member of the political wing of Seleka during the conflict period.  President Djotobia formally dissolved Seleka in 2013 and, as per agreement, integrated several thousand former Seleka fighters into the Central African Armed Forces, or FACA (Boucum, 2015). 

Sectarian violence began cropping up in ethnically Gbaya regions of the CAR as Seleka fighters sought to root out Bozize loyalists.  The ensuing violence looked to be shifting towards an organized campaign of religious and ethnic genocide, between the minority Muslim population that formed Seleka, and the non-Muslim ethnic groups of the CAR.  In 2014 the UN was formally requested in the country to stabilize the interim government and work with CAR forces to prevent further abuses by Seleka and anti-Seleka groups alike.  Challenges arose out of the rehatting of military and police personnel under the supervision of the UN peacekeeping missions.  The absorption of Seleka fighters into the military in 2013 has since marked CAR security forces with rumors of extra-judicial killings, human rights abuses, and corruption plaguing the security forces (Boucum, 2015).  

The UN sought to contend with human rights abuses and weak judicial institutions in the country by creating a hybrid criminal court in 2015.  It began its work on the challenges posed by the lacklustre DDR program and sought to work around the prohibition of amnesty.  DDR in this context refers to a process often instituted in countries following conflict, it includes: demilitarization, disarmament, and reintegration.  The court remains in operation and has been joined by a purely national truth and reconciliation commission set up in 2021, the aim of this newest iteration of reconciliation aims to “ determine responsibilities concerning serious events that took place between 29 March 1959 … and 31 December 2019” (Rugiririza, 2021).  The sixty year period covered presents a daunting task for the court that will ultimately be responsible for addressing concerns over current security personnel. 

The strengthening of the judicial institutions in the CAR has allowed for limited accountability, the domestic court recently brought a case to the ICC regarding war crimes that occurred during the civil war.  While this brings renewed hope for justice, challenges still loom.  The notorious Russian private military contractors, Wagner group, have been operating in the CAR since 2018 to support the current government under Touadera (Ross, 2018).  The situation is tenuous for the CAR, its wounds still fresh from the violence that forced the UN to establish a transitional government.  External conflicts now threaten to undermine the fragile institutions of CAR’s government.  A trajectory of peace in the CAR seems unlikely as the systemic challenges of societal division and increasingly authoritarian rule cast a pall over hopes for stability in the region.

Citations

Bangui Agreements (1997) Central African Republic Government.

Boucum, M. (2015) United Nations Human Rights Council. Report of the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central African Republic. 1-22. 

Rugiririza, E. (2021) Justice Info. Central African Republic: The Truth Commissions with Feet of Clay

Ross, A. (2018) How Russia moved into Central Africa. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-russia-insight/how-russia-moved-into-central-africa-idUSKCN1MR0KA