Over the past week, sectarian fighting in the Central African Republic has escalated to a war over religion, resulting in nearly 500 deaths since December 5th.<\/p>\n
Fear of genocide has led the Pentagon to send African and European peacekeepers to Bangui. Last week, the president of France ordered\u00a0 1,600 French soldiers to the Republic. The force will serve to disarm Christian and Muslim militias, protect French authorities, and to\u00a0forestall any run-up to\u00a0a civil war. Angered with the presence of the Seleka, a group of Muslim rebels, \u00a0in the government, Christian vigilante groups have burned mosques in order to fight back, destroyed homes of Muslims and even stoned to death those who were\u00a0under the slightest suspicion\u00a0of associating with the Seleka.\u00a0The United Nations High Committee on Refugees\u00a0said an estimated 100,000 people have fled their homes in Bangui in the past week and a total of half a million people have been internally displaced.<\/p>\n
The conflict\u00a0began on March 24, 2013. The Central African Republic, although home to resources like diamonds, gold, timber and uranium, lacks the government leadership to bring itself out of poverty. Muslim rebels known as the Seleka seized Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, beginning the division between Christians and Muslims. President\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Boziz\u00e9 was ousted and, according to analysts, citizens of the Central African Republic were relieved\u00a0at the possibility of new power. Since the Central African Republic gained independence in 1960 from France, four of the five past presidents have been removed from their position through violence. President Boziz\u00e9 had sought to\u00a0reduce oppression by selling government positions to rebel leaders. Since then, the leader of Seleka, Michel Djotodia has been in charge of the Republic,\u00a0and violence, rape and mass murder have only increased.<\/p>\n
CAR is surrounded by struggling countries of similar conflicts, afflicted by\u00a0poverty and discrimination based on religion, race and sex. Surrounding regions like\u00a0South Sudan, Sudan’s Darfur region, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad lack stability. Undoubtedly, trouble in CAR will not remain there but rather spread to other regions causing mass murder and segregation of the Christian majority\u00a0from the\u00a0Muslim minority. Additionally,\u00a0the CAR is also believed to be one of the hideouts of Joseph Kony, who has abducted children\u00a0 for soldiers and sex slaves. The United States sent special forces to the region last year to help hunt down Kony, the brutal leader of the Lord Resistance Army but so far without success. Genocide would not only plunge the region into instability;\u00a0it could hinder peace troops’ involvement in the Kony mission.<\/p>\n
Discrimination on the basis of religion has led the Central African Republic\u00a0to the verge of genocide\u00a0 between people who used to live together without conflicts of this gravity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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