RCA: O indizível horror

Unspeakable horrors are unfolding in the Central African Republic (CAR), a state few in the English-speaking world will have heard of, let alone be able to locate. It has endured five coups since it gained independence in 1960. Earlier this year, a long-running civil war between the Seleka rebels – including bandits and mercenaries from Chad and Sudan – and the government of President François Bozizé resulted in the overthrow of Bozizé and his flight from the country. The Seleka leader Michel Djotodia appointed himself president, but remnants of the largely Muslim rebel force now roam over large parts of the country, killing, looting and burning out the Christian majority population, which has itself resorted to violence, escalating sectarian tensions. The toll on the people of CAR is huge, as the Guardian correspondent's reports from the country last week illustrated: men and women tied together and thrown to crocodiles, a father who had to watch his four-year-old son's throat being slit. Rape is endemic. Children are being forced into the militias. Atrocities are reported on both sides. Amnesty International describes human rights violations on "an unprecedented scale". International troops, too few to prevent the conflict growing, are there. The crisis in CAR is not yet a genocide or a sectarian civil war but, as the UN and France said again on Sunday, it is headed in that direction. The international powers are moving to action. The deputy secretary general of the UN, Jan Eliasson, acknowledges the situation in CAR is deteriorating fast. This week the UN security council is likely to commit to turn the African Union-led force into a UN peacekeeping operation, but it will take months to organise. The French government, meanwhile, has pledged another 1,000 troops and plans to circulate a security council resolution calling for further support. The history of attempts at peacekeeping in Africa is not glorious. French interventions in former colonies such as Côte d'Ivoire and Mali – and the Central African Republic – carry echoes of colonialism, while the UN's force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was once the prime example of poor peacekeeping: a force of 20,000 costing billions of dollars failed for many years to create the conditions for peace. There are also, however, some signs of hope. After a prolonged period of failure, the rebel M23 militia were suddenly defeated after the UN force adopted a more aggressive role in DRC. Meanwhile, the African Union mission in Somalia (Amisom) has had some success against al-Shabab. Any intervention carries great risk, but boosting the international force in Central African Republic for a limited operation may yet prevent the crisis turning into a catastrophe. It must not be delayed. The Guardian