Crisis In Central Africa

The papers in the collection are divided into two main areas: nation building and regional integration: problems and prospects; and the ?weird wind of democratisation and governance'. Some examples of topics covered are: the effects of the foreign debt burden on saving ratios in the CEMAC Zone; the Nepad initiative as a basis for fostering economic recovery in the CEMAC Zone; foreign states? elites and the DRC conflicts 1997- 2002; traumas, memories and ?modern? politics in Central Africa; and human rights abuses in the Central Africa sub-region: the case of children.

Relates events in Rwanda after the murder of President Habyarimana including the genocide of the Tutsi, the ill-treatment of refugees, and the eventual reconciliation.

Today's hearing is not being called an emergency hearing, but it could very well be, because since we first decided to hold a hearing to spotlight the human rights situation in the Central African Republic, the situation has deteriorated even further, so that today the country is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Coups and dictatorships have characterized the Central African Republic since its independence in 1960, but the current crisis is far more dangerous than what has come before. Consider this, in a country of approximately 5 million people, roughly 1.1 million citizens face serious food insecurity. Some 460,000 CAR nationals are displaced, including 64,000 who have fled to neighboring countries as refugees and nearly 400,000 who are internally displaced. This is because there has been a complete breakdown of law and order in the country following the ouster of President Francois Bozize in March of 2013.

Lying at the centre of a tumultuous region, the Central African Republic and its turbulent history have often been overlooked. Democracy, in any kind of a meaningful sense, has eluded the country. Since the mid-1990s, army mutinies and serial rebellion in CAR have resulted in two major successful coups. Over the course of these upheavals, the country has become a laboratory for peacebuilding initiatives, hosting a two-decade-long succession of UN and regional peacekeeping, peacebuilding and special political missions. Drawing together the foremost experts on the Central African Republic, this much-needed volume provides the first in-depth analysis of the country’s recent history of rebellion, instability, and international and regional intervention.

Scherrer examines the ethnicized conflicts, periodic war, and genocide in Rwanda and Burundi. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda may have resulted in the murder of a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu, while the mass killings in Burundi, especially in 1993 when some 200,000 Hutu and Tutsi were killed, and the current ongoing war in the Congo appear to have the potential to escalate into another round of genocide in the region. Scherrer explores the background to the conflicts in the Great Lakes Region as well as what the international community might do to break this tragic cycle of violence and despair. Following a chapter on the history of the region before independence in 1960/61, he examines the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the subsequent attempts to promote justice, reconstruction, human rights work, and genocide prevention. Scherrer pays particular attention to the role of the Western powers, the UN, and the aid system--and he is critical of all of these institutions. He also analyzes what is happening in neighboring Burundi and the Congo. An important research for scholars and policymakers involved with Central African affairs and ethnicized conflict.

In March 2013, the ex-Seleka's seizure of power was the final chapter in the gradual but inevitable collapse of the Central African Republic (CAR) state. Since the start of 2015, conflict has become the routine and manifests itself in deadly intercommunal reprisals, the establishment of Muslim enclaves in the west of the country, a combat zone in the centre of the country and the emergence of chronic banditry. In a context of high intercommunal tension and the lack of national cohesion, the Bangui Forum, held in May 2015, aimed to be the first stage in a genuine process of reconciliation. However, several armed groups have rejected the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) agreement. The Republican Pact itself, which lays down the principles of a new regime, reads like a catalogue of good intentions. This report is the product of research conducted in CAR, Kenya, Chad, France, Belgium and the U.S. It analyses the two main protagonists in the CAR crisis (the armed groups and the armed communities) and describes the complex mechanisms and communal nature of the conflict. As CAR seems to be in a "no war no peace" situation, this report proposes a different approach to the task of neutralising these armed groups and avoiding a further increase in intercommunal tension in the run-up to the elections.