European soldiers in the king

EU sends additional forces to the Central African Republic

The European Union sends an additional military contingent to the Central African Republic in March. Its main task will be to ensure security at the airport in the capital of the country of Banga, where about one hundred thousand people who left their homes are now located due to a bloody inter-religious conflict. They live in difficult conditions and achieve the opportunity to leave the TsA.

It is assumed that 500 more military personnel from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Portugal will be sent to the TsA. Thus, the EU contingent will consist of thousands of military personnel, not counting the representatives of the Armed Forces of France. In December, 1,600 French military were sent to the conflict zone in the Central African Republic-to assist 5 thousand peacekeepers of the African Union. France also plans to expand its military presence in the TsA.

Observers note that the decision on the formation of the contingent was made by the leadership of the European Union unusually quickly. Usually in the EU they are very careful when it comes to dangerous armed conflicts. Much easier decisions are made on EU missions to train military personnel and police in different countries in need of assistance.

The conflict in the Tsar - one of the poorest countries in Africa - began after the Muslim group of the Selek seized power in March 2013. The militants of the Selects, according to the United Nation, committed murders, robberies, rape, abducted and tortured people. In response, the Christians living in the country formed their own armed detachments of Anti-Balak (in the local state language of the Sango, this means "anti-Maque"), which began to attack Muslims. The authorities were not able to control the armed groups, which led to the escalation of violence. Now the Muslim population is concentrated mainly in the northern regions of Banga.

Christians make up a religious majority in the TsA - about 80 percent of them. Muslims - only 15.

The leader of the Sleky Michelle Jotodia abandoned the authorities in January, when bloodshed acquired a special scope. The number of victims of the clashes of Muslims and Christians in the Central African Republic is at least two thousand people. The human rights organization of the International Amnesty called the attacks on Muslims in recent months "ethnic cleaning." The mass outcome of Muslims from the TsAD threatens the country with hunger - it is Muslims who are mainly engaged in myths, and keep trading with neighboring states under control, which is now interrupted. At the same time, the detachments of Christian militants constantly attack the convoys coming from Cameroon with food, robbing and killing Muslims. Often, truck drivers simply refuse to cross the border. Peacekeepers have to allocate a significant number of military personnel to protect convoys.

Murders in the Central African Republic are often committed in broad daylight, and peacekeepers declare the impossibility of protecting the entire Muslim population, although they often use force and even open fire to defeat, when the next inter -religious clashes break out. The other day, a mass burial was discovered on the site of the military camp of the Muslim Group of Sea. Who killed several dozen people whose bodies were found in an underground stone bunker.

“Central Africa is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.“ Ethnic religious purges are held here. ”Said the UN High Commissioner for refugees, who arrived in TsAB Antonio Gutierres,“ This must be stopped. There are people who still kill both here and there. Mass killings are still taking place. In several regions of the country, people are forced to flee their houses. "

At the same time, employees of the World Food Program, working in the Central African Republic notes that hunger is approaching the country: “The conflict continues. Political instability continues. The population is extremely exhausted. Most schools are closed. No one has sowed anything, so there will be no crop. So what seemed to us earlier to ensure refugee food, today we consider as a long -term problem of hunger. And we expect a deterioration in the situation with food. "

In the whole country, at least a million three hundred thousand people left their homes - this is more than a quarter of the entire population of the TsA. More than two hundred and fifty thousand fled abroad - in a child and Cameroon. Representatives of the UN say that 9 out of ten inhabitants of the TsAs eat no more than once a day. According to the employee of the World Food Program, Alexis Maskiarelli, who is quoted by Reuters, the UN plans to deliver about 90 tons of food per day from Cameroon in the TsAR. This costs 5 times more than delivery by trucks, but we have no choice, ”emphasizes Musciarelli.

Some breeding commanders made a proposal for the division of the Central African Republic into Muslim and Christian regions. However, the acting president of the country, the former mayor of Bange of the Samba Panza, at a rally in the capital, said that she would not allow this.

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  Andrey Sharogradsky

  International Radio Offer Freedom. Author and host of the information and analytical digest, podcast "Time of Freedom"