Central African Republic: Another Somalia Brewing on the African Continent

To passionate Africans or any keen observer whatsoever, the question of why always Africa will be an hourly one going by all sort of obnoxious events and queasy news coming out of the continent in consequential fashions. Africa has the African Union which at best is saddled with the responsibility of making the continent a safe haven for all. This body is somehow always showing greater signs of ineptitude during crises. Dangerous situations that usually should have been tackled from the root and headlong before they degenerate into cataclysmic events are mostly left to fester on till they almost and most times become insurmountable.

Central African Republic began gradually and the AU was almost nowhere to be found except when it suspended the country which has now become its tradition. Recently in Central African Republic, Red Cross medical workers' lives were endangered with the villagers bolting in panic upon sighting rebels brandishing machetes and AK47 assault rifles who came out from the bush like traditional masquerades. The landlocked former French colony is one of the poorest places on earth and has been plunged into chaos since the Seleka rebels seized power from President Francois Bozize about four months ago, triggering a humanitarian crisis. Just like Rwanda with no oil, it is ignored by the West.

The African Union decided to boost a small regional peacekeeping mission (CEMAC) into a 3,600-strong force in the third week of July after the country had long been degenerating. The decision came after Seleka gunmen killed 15 people in Bangui on July 13 when their truck was found to contain T-shirts supporting Bozize. The bodies of seven victims were found floating in the Ubangi river.

Since independence from France in 1960, Central African Republic like most African countries has been trapped in a cycle of coup after coup. France's military has intervened in the country than anywhere else in Africa, supporting successive military strongmen including self-proclaimed Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa from 1966 to 1979. Though France hid under the guise of President Francois Hollande's keenness to end France's meddling in its former colonies, hence, French soldiers did not act to stop Seleka toppling Bozize but CAR just like in cases where no oil or uranium or any other vital resources exist, has nothing to offer France unlike Mali and Niger. The only interest France has is to secure Bangui airport. It will serve the purpose of express evacuation if need be.

With the country outside the capital Bangui in the grip of rebel warlords, many aid groups and UN agencies have pulled out, leaving its 4.5 million inhabitants to fend for themselves. Rebel Colonel Issene Yaya, who confronted the Red Cross workers in the remote northern village of Ouata-Nata, had come to collect protection money from local chiefs and to lay down the law. Yaya was furious the Red Cross had not recently visited Ouandago, 10 km (6 miles) from Ouata-Nana, where the rebels had made their base according to Reuters.

"You, Red Cross people...I could make you pay a dear price at the end of my gun barrel for your behaviour," Yaya told the aid workers in the local language Sango. Behind him, his camouflage-clad fighters, wearing protective magical charms, chatted in Arabic, the tongue of neighbouring Sudan and eastern Chad. After delivering an ultimatum to Ouata-Nana's mayor for four local chiefs to bring 800,000 CFA francs ($1,600) to them the next day, the rebels disappeared, leaving the village deserted.

Central African Republic has porous borders which give Arabic-speaking marauding raiders, poachers and soldiers of fortune from neighbouring Chad and Sudan to prey on the countryside over the years. Seleka means 'alliance' in Sango and it is a coalition of five rebel groups. It launched its uprising after Bozize failed to honour the terms of a previous power sharing deal. Many northerners resented Bozize, who seized power in a 2003 coup, for surrounding himself with his own Gbaya tribesmen.

"What sin, what wickedness did we do for God to reserve this fate for us?" asked Marie Loana, a 72-year-old woman outside her hut in Ouata-Nana, empty after her family fled into the bush. After the March 24 rebel takeover, Seleka's leader Michel Djotodia was named interim president of Central African Republic in a deal brokered by regional powers intended to lead to elections in 18 months. But he has failed to prevent his troops, many of whom are Muslims from Chad and Sudan, from committing atrocities against the Christian population.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) says rebels have killed at least 400 people and carried out dozens of rapes since seizing power. It qualifies this as war crimes. With health services across the country close to collapse, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has accused the international community of turning its back on the country. The fighting has displaced 206,000 people inside Central African Republic and pushed 55,000 refugees across its borders.

"We have to appeal to the conscience of the world to help these people living in some of the worst conditions on earth," EU Commissioner for international cooperation Kristalina Georgieva said during a visit this month to the country. "Unless the state returns, this risks turning into a new Somalia, where local warlords control the country," Reuters report. "All seven bodies showed signs of torture. Some of the men had their genitals cut off, their eyes gouged out ... It was really an atrocity," said Joselin Likomba, a Red Cross worker. Security has improved somewhat inside the chaotic capital this month, following months of looting and killings, after Seleka fighters were ordered off the streets unless patrolling jointly with the CEMAC regional force.

"Seleka fighters are committing crimes with total impunity," FIDH said in a report, estimating the group's ranks had swollen from 5,000 at the time of the coup to some 20,000 fighters. "In the provinces, where Seleka holds power and the state does not exist, there is no justice." The European Union, the country's largest humanitarian donor, has so far pledged 20 million euros ($26.5 million) to stabilize the country, hoping this will bring aid groups back. "The very presence of humanitarian organizations can be a deterrent to looting, killings and rape," said Georgieva, who held long talks with Djotodia in Bangui. "It is not clear he understands how to get a grip on security in his country."

The humanitarian situation may be about to worsen as terrified villagers flee deep into the forests, scavenging for food, meaning they are missing the planting season. Malnutrition rates, already double those of last year, are poised to leap. In Ouata-Nana, only one of the village chiefs appeared to pay Yaya 50,000 CFA. Two others fled to Chad while the fourth headed south with his family to Bangui. "They will kill us if we don't pay," said one of the chiefs, Paul Idamba. "Our life here is torture. It is hell."

Macky Sall, Senegalese President says 'It's easy to condemn Africa'

Senegal has long been revered as one of Africa’s model democracies, one of the very few West African states with a tradition of civilian rule.

'It's easy when you are far away to condemn Africa. Africa is a continent that suffered injustices for ages. We can go back to slavery, colonisation.... All this led to a situation of neo-colonialism ... This is a complex phenomenon and we, heads of states, are aware of it. Today this is our responsibility. Believe me when I say we will sort out this situation'. ~Macky Sall, the President of Senegal

The country gained independence from France in 1960, and has suffered no serious upheavals since. It has an established multi-party system and boasts one of the region’s most stable economies despite high unemployment and poverty. The relative stability in Senegal is now threatened by the conflict in  neighbouring Mali.

The presence of Senegalese soldiers together with the West African and French troops in the fight against Islamists in the north has raised fears of reprisal attacks.

This stability record is also threatened by is its long running separatist war in the southern Casamance region [since the 1980s] that has claimed hundreds of lives.

The government’s refusal to extradite former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, accused of crimes against humanity, has also led to widespread criticism. However, Senegal’s president strongly defends his country’s actions.

Elected in April 2012, over one year ago, Macky Sall, who describes himself as the “best-elected president in Africa”, has placed significant emphasis on the fight against corruption and bolstering Senegal’s position in Africa and the global stage.

After coming to power, Sall stated his intention of making peace with rebels in Casamance, as did his predecessor Abdoulaye Wade when he came to power in 2000.

Will he deliver on his promises or is it all just a political facade?

Courtesy: Aljazeera

Mali is being liberated

PARIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A French-led offensive in Mali that forced out al Qaeda-allied Islamist insurgents from the towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend shows that Mali is slowly being freed, the French foreign minister said on Monday.

"Little by little, Mali is being liberated," Laurent Fabius told France 2 television. But Fabius cautioned that armed fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, who had sought to impose Islamic law in the vast desert area, were now hiding and could reappear.

"The terrorist groups are carrying out a strategy of evasion and some of them could return in the north, primarily in Mali," Fabius warned. He declined to say whether France would intervene again if the militants returned.

Weekend gains by French and Malian forces capped a two-week offensive, involving warplanes and ground troops, launched to halt a southward push toward the capital, Bamako, by the loose coalition of Islamic militants.

French and Malian armoured columns forced fighters out of the central Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza last week, and in recent days have inched their way northward.

"We are winning back a series of towns with the Malians," said Fabius, adding that troops from an African intervention force were preparing to deploy. Soldiers from Chad and Nigeria are already on the ground. (Reporting By Alexandria Sage)