Human Rights Crisis in CAR: Resources

Last updated on: January 4, 2015 at 8:52 am by George G. Coe

Human Rights Crisis in CAR: Resources 2015-01-04T08:52:02-05:00 George G. Coe

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According to this excellent and graphic story from Human Rights Watch, the civil war between the Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic is spreading “like a deadly cancer.”

The Seleka rebels who gained power in 2013 created a reign terror including “burning down village after village, firing randomly at civilians from their pick-up trucks, executing farmers in their fields, torturing anyone suspected of plotting against them, and murdering women and children.”

The Central African Republic (the CAR) is a Christian country with a Muslim minority. In 2003, the country democratically elected a new president. But he had so many problems with civil strife and foreign intervention that a civil war broke out in 2013 when different groups tried to overthrow him. Muslim rebels won and installed a Muslim leader.

The Muslims, called Seleekas, burned villages, killed civilians, and destroyed over 1000 homes. Christians began to fight back. Their militias, called anti-balaka or anti machete, began a ruthless campaign of reprisals, introducing what the Nation calls, ” a dangerous sectarian element. ” The Nation says that these Christian militias “targeted Muslims civilians including women and children.”

Here is clip that Human Rights Watch made about the fighters and embedded in their story.

Since 2013, according to Al Jazeera, over 5000 people have been killed and over 1,000,000 people have been displaced.

Both sides, according to the United Nations, have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. According the Colombian Journalism review, the Western media has ignored this crisis and that as a consequence many American know little about it.

Here are some terrific news stories about the crisis.

- The Guardian, Act of faith: the Catholic priest who puts his life on the line to save Muslims in Central African Republic
- The Guardian, Unspeakable horrors in a country on the verge of genocide
- Washington Post, 9 Questions about the Central African republic that you were too embarrassed to ask
- Slate Magazine, Close your Heart
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHR), 2015 UNHCR country operations profile – Central African Republic

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