UN approves intervention in Central African Republic as violence rages
In January 2013 the government negotiated another power-sharing agreement with the rebels, and a leading Muslim politician, Michel Djotodia, the political leader of Séléka, was named first deputy prime minister.
Some rebel groups, however, refused to stop the fighting and continued to attack government forces. In March 2013, as rebels were closing in on Bangui, the capital, Bozizé and his family fled the country and the rebel leader, Michel Djotodia, declared himself president.
Djotodia, however, was unable to control the rebels he once led. He disbanded Séléka, but the rebels refused to disarm and continued their attacks on government forces and, increasingly, on Christian civilians.
The Christian majority responded. Army deserters joined Christian vigilante groups to attack the rebels, and the country has descended into a war of all-against-all.
CNN reports that the military commander of Séléka, Gen. Issa Yahya, was killed last Thursday in Bangui by fighters from a Christian militia. His second-in-command, Col. Saleh Zabari, is now thought to be in charge, although it is not clear what degree of control he exercises over the disparate rebel groups..
The increasingly sectarian nature of the fighting is worrisome to outside powers.
Samantha Power, the U.S. envoy, said sectarian tensions are tearing once-peaceful communities apart. She pointed out that in the city of Bossangoa, tens of thousands of Christians were seeking refuge in a Catholic church compound, while their Muslim neighbors shelter in a mosque nearby.
“Extremists on both sides, in an environment of lawlessness and an environment of state failure, have taken advantage of that vacuum and stoked animosities,” she said.
It is impossible to say how many people have been killed so far, because the country’s non-existent road and communication infrastructure makes it impossible and dangerous to venture into remote rural provinces. UN officials have warned that the violence between the Christian majority and Muslim minority now in power could lead to genocide.
More than 400,000 people — nearly 10 percent of the population — have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations.
France said it would send about 1,000 more troops to add to the 400 French soldiers already there. The 400 French troops are deployed around the international airport and in the Bangui neighborhood where hundreds of French citizens live.
French officials, unofficially, said they envision deploying to the Central African Republic about the same number of troops France sent to Mali in January to evict Islamists insurgents from north Mali.
The French force in Mali reached 4,200 troops, and was supported by a considerable number of French aircraft.
Sources in the African Union mission to the Central African Republic said Wednesday that more French troops were on their way to the nation.
France’s ambassador to the UN, Gerard Araud, who holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, welcomed the council’s decision to intervene in what he said was a “forgotten crisis.”
