The mob violence wracking Central African Republic imperils the future of the country’s Muslims, with tens of thousands fleeing the daily violence and untold numbers killed.
Bangui, the capital, is engulfed in bloodshed and looting despite the presence of thousands of French and African peacekeepers.
“We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings,” Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said, calling for a full-fledged U.N. peacekeeping mission. “Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone.”
Muslims make up about 15 percent of Central African Republic’s 4.6 million people. More than 800,000 people have fled their homes —about half of those from the capital, according to the United Nations.
“There are some who don’t want Muslims in this country,” Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said Saturday. “But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss.”
Thousands of Muslims left Bangui in a massive convoy Friday that was jeered by crowds of Christians. One Muslim who fell off a truck was quickly was killed by the mob. Muslim women who could not get on the trucks tried to hand their children to strangers aboard the vehicles.
Across a wide stretch of northwest Central African Republic, Christian militiamen known as the anti-Balaka (or anti-machete) have driven tens of thousands of Muslims out of the area. Many are seeking refuge in Chad or Cameroon.
The violence against the Muslims is in reaction to abuses perpetrated by the Muslim Seleka rebels during their 10-month rule that began last March. Seleke fighters tied their victims together and threw them off bridges to drown or be eaten by crocodiles, according to witnesses. Now that Seleka’s leader Michel Djotodia stepped down from the presidency last month and a precarious civilian interim government is in charge, it is the country’s Muslim minority that is now under assault.
No one knows the true death toll from two months of the worst inter-communal violence in this country’s history: It is often too dangerous for crews to recover the corpses.
Central African Republic was already one of the world’s poorest and most lawless countries even before the March 2013 coup by Muslim rebels from the north plunged the nation into deeper crisis.
French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio on Thursday the military is likely to extend its mission in Central African Republic beyond the U.N.-mandated six-month mission.
“We are going to avoid the worst,” Le Drian said. “By our presence, we can lower tensions on the ground, to pave the way for a peaceful political transition.”
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