About Land of Scars
Central Africa in 2011, Christians and Muslims live together in the same villages, next door. In peace. One year later. Central Africa is de facto divided, Christians and Muslims became enemies. Christian and Muslim oriented militias killing each other. The majority of the Christian population lives in refugee camps. Most Muslims have left the country. Almost all mosques are destroyed. The once peaceful land – a mess. Pictures of burning houses, of minced corpses, of people with machetes, grenades and Kalashnikovs go through the media. This is one of the bloodiest international conflicts. So brutal that UN compare the situation with the genocide in Rwanda. That was in 2014.
Since then the civil war in Central Africa has largely disappeared from the international media. But that does not mean that the brutal killings have stopped between Muslim Seleka rebels and the Christian Anti-Balaka-fighters. Although there has been no attacks in the capital Bangui for months; but in the rural areas the attacks were continued unhindered. Although UN peacekeepers have been sixteen months in the country to protect civilians. Nevertheless, still one in five residents is on the run. “Around 370,000 people live as IDPs in other parts of the country, while 471,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Especially in Cameroon and the Congo the situation of 350,000 refugees living there is precarious. They often lack the bare essentials in their camps ”, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP wrote in a report. After Europe, these refugees can not. People in Central Africa, they seem to have been forgotten by the world literally. Without an access to the sea, surrounded by crisis ridden countries without a good chance to find safe asylum. They became invisible.
The freelance journalist Isabelle Buckow and I stayed in Central Africa in August for three weeks. We wanted to find out how the situation in the country has developed since the formation of the interim government in January 2014 and the deployment of French and international troops. We wanted to know: What is the humanitarian and security situation today? The situation has eased? Ordoes the Christians and Muslims still fight up to today? What is the mood in the population? Is the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims now possible again?
To answer these and other questions, we first went to Boda, a small village, about 200 kilometers from the capital, Bangui. The special feature: Boda is the first village, Christians and Muslims now live together peacefully again, and thus plays a pioneering role. One of the largest Muslim enclaves is also located in Boda. In Boda we talked to the local police, with NGOs, with the imam – and with people who had lost everything in the attack of Christian fighters: their animals, their shacks, their homes, often their families.
From Boda we drove to Bambari, in the east of the country. Bambari is one of the major trade areas in the country – and in the hands of the Muslim Seleka militia. Here lives the self proclaimed Seleka-General Ali Darassa Mahamat, who controls the entire area around Bambari. We spoke with Ali Darassa Mahamat, drove in the Goldmine Ndassima controlled by the Seleka, visited the cattle market, drove with the UN peacekeepers on patrol, and witnessed, when Darassa handed over eight prisoners (alleged anti-Balaka Fighter) to the UN. We interviewed the prisoners, visited the central hospital, talked with doctors, experts from various NGOs, and Christians, who had been attacked by Seleka rebels a few days earlier, including a mother with a two year old baby who had been badly wounded by a Kalashnikov.
Our report “Land of Scars” examines the conflict from different perspectives and explains how he has ever arisen. How to tell the story of a country where Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully for decades – until the conflict led to the total collapse. It is a conflict that can be attributed not only to the clashes between the rebels and the Seleka Anti-Balaka fighters. We want to show with our report, that the conflict in Central Africa is not a religious conflict, as it is propagated by politicians and the media, but that it is, rather, a complex struggle for power and natural resources, which is strongly influenced by the former colinial power France. And we want to show that this fight has plunged the country into chaos, from which it will recover only very hard again – and that will complicate the peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in the long run.
Central Africa in 2011, Christians and Muslims live together in the same villages, next door. In peace. One year later. Central Africa is de facto divided, Christians and Muslims became enemies. Christian and Muslim oriented militias killing each other. The majority of the Christian population lives in refugee camps. Most Muslims have left the country. Almost all mosques are destroyed. The once peaceful land – a mess. Pictures of burning houses, of minced corpses, of people with machetes, grenades and Kalashnikovs go through the media. This is one of the bloodiest international conflicts. So brutal that UN compare the situation with the genocide in Rwanda. That was in 2014.
Since then the civil war in Central Africa has largely disappeared from the international media. But that does not mean that the brutal killings have stopped between Muslim Seleka rebels and the Christian Anti-Balaka-fighters. Although there has been no attacks in the capital Bangui for months; but in the rural areas the attacks were continued unhindered. Although UN peacekeepers have been sixteen months in the country to protect civilians. Nevertheless, still one in five residents is on the run. “Around 370,000 people live as IDPs in other parts of the country, while 471,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Especially in Cameroon and the Congo the situation of 350,000 refugees living there is precarious. They often lack the bare essentials in their camps ”, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP wrote in a report. After Europe, these refugees can not. People in Central Africa, they seem to have been forgotten by the world literally. Without an access to the sea, surrounded by crisis ridden countries without a good chance to find safe asylum. They became invisible.
The freelance journalist Isabelle Buckow and I stayed in Central Africa in August for three weeks. We wanted to find out how the situation in the country has developed since the formation of the interim government in January 2014 and the deployment of French and international troops. We wanted to know: What is the humanitarian and security situation today? The situation has eased? Ordoes the Christians and Muslims still fight up to today? What is the mood in the population? Is the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims now possible again?
To answer these and other questions, we first went to Boda, a small village, about 200 kilometers from the capital, Bangui. The special feature: Boda is the first village, Christians and Muslims now live together peacefully again, and thus plays a pioneering role. One of the largest Muslim enclaves is also located in Boda. In Boda we talked to the local police, with NGOs, with the imam – and with people who had lost everything in the attack of Christian fighters: their animals, their shacks, their homes, often their families.
From Boda we drove to Bambari, in the east of the country. Bambari is one of the major trade areas in the country – and in the hands of the Muslim Seleka militia. Here lives the self proclaimed Seleka-General Ali Darassa Mahamat, who controls the entire area around Bambari. We spoke with Ali Darassa Mahamat, drove in the Goldmine Ndassima controlled by the Seleka, visited the cattle market, drove with the UN peacekeepers on patrol, and witnessed, when Darassa handed over eight prisoners (alleged anti-Balaka Fighter) to the UN. We interviewed the prisoners, visited the central hospital, talked with doctors, experts from various NGOs, and Christians, who had been attacked by Seleka rebels a few days earlier, including a mother with a two year old baby who had been badly wounded by a Kalashnikov.
Our report “Land of Scars” examines the conflict from different perspectives and explains how he has ever arisen. How to tell the story of a country where Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully for decades – until the conflict led to the total collapse. It is a conflict that can be attributed not only to the clashes between the rebels and the Seleka Anti-Balaka fighters. We want to show with our report, that the conflict in Central Africa is not a religious conflict, as it is propagated by politicians and the media, but that it is, rather, a complex struggle for power and natural resources, which is strongly influenced by the former colinial power France. And we want to show that this fight has plunged the country into chaos, from which it will recover only very hard again – and that will complicate the peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in the long run.