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FRESH FIGHTING BROKE out in the strife-torn Central African Republic as the deadline closed Saturday for candidates seeking to be chosen by parliament as the new interim president.
“There is some violence nearly everywhere,” an officer with the MISCA African peacekeeping force told AFP, pointing to Bouar in the west near the border with Cameroon, the town of Sibut north of Bangui, and Boali to the northwest of the capital.
People are in a desperate situation and as we get closer to the election it is going to get worse.
At least three people were killed in Sibut, a resident told AFP by telephone as under-siege civilians called on the international forces for help.
“I’m putting out a cry of alarm,” said the resident who asked not to be named. “The (ex-rebel) Seleka movement is reigning like warlords in the city and there is no foreign force to protect us.”
A Catholic Church source said the parish premises came under attack in Sibut. “We tried to contact MISCA and (the French force) Sangaris for quick help, but so far there is no one,” he said.
MISCA told AFP that teams were on their way to the town of about 25,000 people, an important transport hub known for its market.
But the MISCA officer told AFP that the African force has been flooded with calls for help, all of which cannot be handled.
Soldiers
Some 4,400 African troops and 1,600 French soldiers have been deployed to the CAR to try to restore order in the impoverished country that plunged into chaos and sectarian violence following a March 2013 coup.
The mostly Muslim Seleka rebels installed their leader Michel Djotodia as president in the mainly Christian country. But he failed to control the rebels, many of whom went on killing, raping and pillaging, prompting Christians to form vigilante groups in response.
Djotodia resigned on January 11 under pressure from African leaders who feared the unrest could spread throughout the region.
Now the country’s transitional parliament is expected to vote on Monday for a new interim president. With the deadline for filing candidacies passed, the list of contenders is to be published on Sunday.
There are reportedly 24 candidates, including Bangui mayor Catherine Samba Panza and the sons of former presidents Ange-Felix Patasse and Andre Kolingba.
France’s Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday that French forces would be especially “vigilant” as the presidential vote takes place.
Muslims seek refuge in church
Despite the presence of peacekeeping forces in the former French colony, the violence has not let up and the United Nations warned on Thursday that bloodshed in the country could turn into genocide.
Fighting has flared beyond Bangui with attacks on churches reported in the western town of Bossemptele near the border with Cameroon, according to the religious official in Bangui.
In Boali, about 90 kilometres northwest of Bangui, the situation remains tense despite an operation launched Friday by the French forces on the road leading from the capital to Cameroon border, a vital link for supplies of food and goods.
A local priest Boris Wiligale said by phone that hundreds of Muslim nomads have taken refuge in his church.
The priest said French forces had disarmed the Muslim ex-Seleka rebels in the town but that Christian militias have seized the opportunity to come out of the bush.
And in Bangui the UN children’s agency UNICEF said today that 23 children aged 14 to 17, including six girls, who had been recruited by armed groups have been handed over to child protection services.
France is now seeking support from the European Union in the CAR, Le Drian said.
EU foreign ministers meeting Monday in Brussels are expected to give the green light to sending 500 European soldiers to help secure Bangui’s airport.
Makes me realise how lucky we really are despite everything.
Oh ye! Being rules by morons is far easier than any of that! At least the morons who govern us just take our money!
Ur an awful bollox…
Why? Being ruled by idiots is heaven compared to any of that. Is it not?
Jesus, some of these pictures are harrowing and the stories behind them, even worse! It really makes you think about our own, ‘first world’ problems…
Puts things into context compared to the whining gimp patrol on here moaning that they cant afford skinny lattes and holidays because of the mortgage on their massive house
Thatcher was a great friend of Augusto Pinochet during and after his brutal reign. At the same time she was denouncing Nelson Mandela as a terrorist
I teach history and when it comes to the holocaust or the famine the kids always ask, how did people let that happen? Whats crazy is that we are still letting it happen!
You only have to look at the treatment of travellers to realise ‘hate’ is alive and well in Ireland.
Yeah it’s so shocking and depressing to see what people do to each other. Governments dont give a toss unless it’s worth something to them. Thousands being killed in Syria and all they’re doing is political posturing.
Those pictures of the North Korean kids goes to show the world what a “Socialist Paradise” really looks like.
And now the madness of NK has declared war on S Korea. Utter madness. What is going on within their heads?
As for the morons that say we are having it bad. Move to North Korea please.
I think your the only person describes it as a socialist paradise
Daniel I was being sarcastic using the usual leftie description of a socialist country.
My family affected in 2004 tsunami…still hav nightmares.
Nobody should be afraid to give to charity or to fill their Trocaire box….
There is always someone always worse off than us…
Not a cent would I give to Trocaire… I dont really care about the third world
Thousands of people were killed or ‘disappeared’ during the regime led by General Augusto Pinochet until 1988….
Two point nine thousand to be precise in 8 years. An hours work for Chairman Mao or Comrade Tito, both still very much beloved………
Seriously, it’s an insult to include Pinochet and not include the Balkans war. Pinochet’s only sin was to align his economic policy with the liberal Chicago school and produce a relative success of a country (in contrast to an array of Latin American lefties who screwed up their countries). On the other hand, the massacre in Srebrenica for example (for which the armed ‘forces’ of an EU country take the blame) resulted in three times more dead in only half a day. Your criteria, dear Journal, is rid of logic.
Chile was the world’s biggest producer of tin but it was being exported to America, especially to the Coca-Cola Co., for extremely low prices. When Allende came to power he wanted to nationalise the industry. This would have cost Coca-Cola millions as the tin for their cans and bottle tops all came from Chile. They put pressure on Henry Kissinger to do something about this. He in turn tasked the CIA to overthrow the government and replace it with one favourable to America’s needs. That’s where Pinochet came in. Thousands were murdered just so he could line his pockets, and America, a country that prides itself for its democracy, destroyed this fledgling democracy for purely monetary reasons. Pinochet didn’t create the Chilean economy. In fact, he set it back years.
Ah yes, the nationalization of various industries would have been another Latin American socialist success just like that of Argentina where Peron’s (national)socialists policies brought the country to a permanent state of disrepair. Argentina is a unique case in the economic history insofar that it was the only country in the World that managed to drop off the top-20 richest countries list (it was replaced by Japan) in the past 100 years. Even the BBC had this to say about Chile:
“The economy of Chile is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank,[9] and is one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations”
If it was down to Allende’s chest-thumping, this would have ended in IMF bail-outs and plundering of pension funds just like it did in Argentina (presumably also the fault of those goddamn Americans).
Bleeding-heart students don’t mind wearing badges with romantic images of that serial murderer CheGuevara for the same reason. So much about principles. Leftists generally like guys in uniforms who murder opposition and rule by decree but only if they align with socialist policies. Pinochet could have had his restaurants in Dublin like Mao only if he had read Marx a bit more and did not use leftist methods to deal with leftist thugs.
The story of Allende and Chile is what cemented me as a socialist. The likely election of a left govt in Greece, Syriza next time around could see a IMF/EU technocratic coup to ensure the austerity agenda is not interrupted in Europe. It’s very scary considering the openly fascist right wing that already has support in Greece.
You could have looked closer to home at Russia and Eastern Europe for how this whole socialism thing works out.
Look even closer to home, maybe the q for food parcels at the cappuchin friary to see how capitalism has worked out….
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