Silent crisis in northwest lingers

What started as a seemingly insignificant skirmish between the army and antigovernment forces in Ouham Prefecture of northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) has spurred a humanitarian crisis in which almost 100,000 people have been displaced. In September 2005, these forces first attacked the town of Markounda, in Ouham Prefecture, and killed two soldiers. On 29 January 2006, the government reported that 27 people had been killed in fighting between "armed bands" and the army in the town of Paoua, in the neighbouring Ouham-Pende Prefecture, some 70km south of the Chad border. Independent observers put the number killed at 104. Whatever the case, both attacks marked an erosion of security under the administration of President Francois Bozize and its inability to wrest control of the lawless northwest from these armed bands. The rebellion is in the president’s home prefecture of Ouham, from where in October 2002 he led a successful revolt against President Ange-Felix Patasse. While the government initially dismissed the attacks as the work of bandits, residents in Ouham thought otherwise. They said some of the attackers were Bozize opponents who wanted to undermine his authority because he had overthrown a legitimate government. The antigovernment forces also claimed that Bozize had mismanaged public funds and divided the nation during his three years in office. Other antigovernment forces - all former Bozize supporters who had fought in the uprising against Patasse - had simply decided to be attacking travellers along highways. As their confidence grew they began attacking the army, as a means of asserting their financial claim: They accused their erstwhile leader of failing to honour his pledge to pay each fighter seven million francs CFA (US $14,279) after he seized power. Some had been paid 300,000 francs ($612), but most received only 150,000 francs ($306), according to an official in the CAR military. Home Affairs Minister Michel Salley said Patasse's supporters and former government officials had recruited these disgruntled former fighters to overthrow Bozize, and promised to pay them the money that Bozize had failed to deliver.

The armed groups

Little is known about the antigovernment forces, but residents in the northwest say they are members of the l'Union des forces républicaines, headed by Abdoulaye Miskine; the mouvement patroitic pour la renaissance du peuple cenafricain; and the armee populaire pour la restauration de la democratie et la republique, none of which holds territory. While there is no official alliance between these groups, they share the agenda of destabilising the authority of Bozize’s government. The hit-and-run raids in Ouham and Ouham-Pende by these antigovernment forces have presented a significant challenge to the military, despite the army's claims that the aim of these poorly armed groups is simply to remind the government of their ability to cause havoc. Such assessments have led to government complacency and served to embolden the rebels. They have gone on to launched further attacks such as those on the towns of Bodjomo and Kabo in Ouham Prefecture, and on Bozoum in Ouham-Pende Prefecture. The mouvement patroitic pour la renaissance du peuple cenafricain claimed responsibility for the 29 January attacks on Paoua and the killing of the mayor of Bossangoa, the capital of Ouham. Only in March did Prime Minister Elie Doté first acknowledge the existence of a rebellion in the northwest. Faced with an expanding crisis, the government responded by sending Bozize's elite presidential guards to the area. However, this has fuelled, rather than calmed, civilian fears and led to massive displacement. The guardsmen have been accused of burning down many villages, such as Kadjama in Ouham Prefecture, based on allegations that rebels had been hiding there with relatives. A high-ranking army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, maintained that civilians withheld information about the rebels to protect family members who were part of the insurgency.

Humanitarian consequences of war

According to the CAR army, the rebellion in the northwest is a low-intensity war, launched by civilians with no formal military training. Still, the humanitarian consequences of the conflict have been severe.

Léodégal Bazira

Some 45,000 people have been displaced to southern Chad, and another 55,000 civilians have fled into the bush in Ouham and Ouham-Pende, said Leodegal Bazira, the representative of the United Nations World Health Organization in CAR. Most of them left their villages without their personal belongings or livestock to escape possible reprisals by the presidential guards. They have little, if any, food and no medical help, as personnel have abandoned hospitals and dispensaries. Those who sought refuge in the bush are surviving on wild fruit and roots, according to Charles Dei, resident representative of the UN World Food Programme. Although some families have been displaced for months, they have had no humanitarian aid. While winding up a tour to the northwest in April, the head the CAR Red Cross Society, Alphonse Zarambaud, said many people in Markounda had not received a single kilogramme of food. Bruno Geddo, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in CAR, said that in March the agency began providing food and medicines for some 2,000 displaced people in Markounda, even though they were not refugees. He said this effort would be replicated elsewhere when there was more money. The agency is coordinating the relief operation, and the Italian NGO COOPI, as well as Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain, is supporting the UN effort by distributing aid to the needy. Still, an increasing number of displaced civilians in northwestern CAR need further assistance. "People in the region felt abandoned," Luc Appolinaire Dondon, the MP for Paoua, said.

Joseph Foumbi

"In the short term, we have to provide assistance to 35,000 people in need of food and medical care in the region [Paoua and Markounda]," Joseph Foumbi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for CAR, said. While there is some optimism about an improving situation in Markounda, people in Paoua are dying from malnutrition and malaria. According to UN agencies, the humanitarian community has been unable to assess the situation in Paoua this year due to the rising insecurity. "Our actions on the ground are limited during armed conflict," Foumbi said. The few reports coming out of Paoua are provided by the CAR Red Cross, which has maintained its presence on the ground in spite of the conflict. During the agency’s last tour to Paoua, volunteers reported nearly 100 villages empty. "All the villages around the town of Paoua are deserted," Zarambaud said. "People left their villages for the bush, where they built new homes." Zarambaud said those displaced by the insecurity were at high risk of malnutrition-related diseases, as farmers had been forced to leave their land before the harvest, and their new crops had not yet matured. In addition, there are no hospitals and schools open around Paoua, where presidential guards allegedly committed atrocities in January. Fearful of renewed government army operations in the Ouham-Pende Prefecture, particularly around Paoua, the displaced people remain in the bush. Many of them avoid contact with strangers, fearing they could be soldiers disguised as civilians.

Restoring peace

Despite the government’s earlier reticence to acknowledge the severity of the problem in the northwest, it has now made the restoration of peace in the region a priority. As such, the CAR administration and the international community are devising plans to stabilise the region and end the humanitarian crisis. "Very soon, a government mission will go to the troubled zones, mainly in Paoua and surrounding villages, to meet with villagers, discuss with them, and create a certain climate of confidence for a lasting peace," Salley said. However, some diplomats doubted that calm would return to the northwest anytime soon. The ongoing instability in Chad and the Sudanese Darfur conflict have raised some public concern that the rebel groups could take advantage of the fact that the international spotlight has been cast elsewhere and carry out more attacks.

CEMAC troops helping to restore security in the northwest

International and local political observers said restoring peace to the northwest is, at best, a very complicated matter that would require improving the social, economic and military situation. There has been social and economic meltdown in the country over the past two decades, which has paved the way for the current upheaval. Since the holding of multiparty elections in 2005 that led to civilian rule, CAR has not received any substantial aid money or investments with which to revamp its economy. The country's meagre tax base can barely meet the government's expenditures. Rather, seemingly permanent social tension reigns, as salaries are not regularly paid. "Civil servants are now claiming 42 month arrears," said Noel Ramadan, chairman of the Union Syndicale des Travailleurs de Centrafrique, the country's largest trade union. Without a salary, civil servants are left to fend for their families by other means, which increases the likelihood of laxity and corruption in the public sector. Unemployment has also contributed to the escalation of unrest. At the military level, so much needs to be done. Since 1981, when Gen Andre Kolingba seized power in a coup, the army has fractured along regional and ethnic lines. In addition, some soldiers are well beyond retirement age in this tiny army of 5,000, further handicapping its battle readiness. Local military officers and diplomats agree that the army could not crush the current insurgency without external help. In 1996, a force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa was deployed to CAR to keep peace in the capital, but later it was mandated to help the CAR army restore order in the northwest. However, so far, the force has not succeeded in its mission. For almost 10 years now, the government has been talking about rebuilding a rejuvenated army, but nothing has been done due to lack of money. The international community has pledged money for this purpose but requires the government to retire overage soldiers and to ensure that soldiers are from various ethnic groups. "Money from the international community still remains the key need of the CAR to settle some of its domestic problems, and mainly the unrest in the northwest Paoua region," said a military official who did not want to be named.