Can new pact bring peace to the CAR?
Can new pact bring peace to the CAR?
IRIN, 18 May 2015
URL: http://www.irinnews.org/report/101502/briefing-can-new-pact-bring-peace-to-the-car
GOMA, 15 May 2015 (IRIN) - Can the Central African Republic finally turn the page on decades of instability and conflict?
Rebel groups and militias have signed a new peace pact aimed at putting the horrific violence of the past few years behind them.
The Séléka, a coalition of mostly Muslim insurgent groups from the north of the country, seized power in March 2013 in a campaign marked and followed by indiscriminate killings, rapes and looting.
The rebels’ arrival in Bangui prompted the re-emergence of vigilante groups known as the anti-Balaka and led to months of clashes between rival communities.
See: Briefing: Who are the anti-Balaka of CAR?
Séléka leader Michel Djotodia declared the alliance disbanded in September 2013. But the fighters, who then became known as the ex-Séléka, dispersed into the countryside and continued to commit widespread abuses against civilians.
Djotodia stepped down the following January to make way for a civilian interim administration. Bangui mayor Catherine Samba-Panza was chosen as a non-partisan figure to see the country through to the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Violence has claimed thousands of lives and persists in some parts of the country, preventing the return of some 900,000 displaced civilians, both inside and outside the CAR, and causing a largely overlooked humanitarian disaster.
The United States applauded the disarmament deal, struck during a week-long reconciliation forum in Bangui, as a "commitment to peace." But similar accords have unravelled quickly in the past and implementation will be far from straightforward. This briefing explains why:
Who signed the agreement and what authority do they have?
Of the 10 armed groups at the forum, only one, the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), led by Abdoulaye Miskine, did not sign, but that may just have been a temporary hitch, and he is not regarded as a major potential spoiler.
The other nine signatories represent all the major armed groups in the CAR, including the predominantly Muslim groups that make up the ex-Séléka rebel coalition. Importantly, the coordinator and self-styled leader of the anti-Balaka, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, also signed.
See: Armed groups in CAR
Most signatories were leaders of the groups’ political wings. There was dissent from at least one rebel commander.
“It’s good that the politicians have agreed to sign, but the realities on the ground are another thing,” Joseph Zoundeiko, military leader of the ex-Séléka Popular Rally for the Renewal of Central Africa (RPRC), was reported as saying after the signing ceremony.
But RPRC political chief Djono Ahaba, nephew of former Séléka leader Djotodia, played down the significance of Zoundeiko’s remarks.
“As for the attitude of certain officers, that’s a problem the group will solve. So it (the RPRC) stays firmly within the peace process,” he said.
Rebel groups and militias have signed a new peace pact aimed at putting the horrific violence of the past few years behind them.
The Séléka, a coalition of mostly Muslim insurgent groups from the north of the country, seized power in March 2013 in a campaign marked and followed by indiscriminate killings, rapes and looting.
The rebels’ arrival in Bangui prompted the re-emergence of vigilante groups known as the anti-Balaka and led to months of clashes between rival communities.
See: Briefing: Who are the anti-Balaka of CAR?
Séléka leader Michel Djotodia declared the alliance disbanded in September 2013. But the fighters, who then became known as the ex-Séléka, dispersed into the countryside and continued to commit widespread abuses against civilians.
Djotodia stepped down the following January to make way for a civilian interim administration. Bangui mayor Catherine Samba-Panza was chosen as a non-partisan figure to see the country through to the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Violence has claimed thousands of lives and persists in some parts of the country, preventing the return of some 900,000 displaced civilians, both inside and outside the CAR, and causing a largely overlooked humanitarian disaster.
The United States applauded the disarmament deal, struck during a week-long reconciliation forum in Bangui, as a "commitment to peace." But similar accords have unravelled quickly in the past and implementation will be far from straightforward. This briefing explains why:
Who signed the agreement and what authority do they have?
Of the 10 armed groups at the forum, only one, the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), led by Abdoulaye Miskine, did not sign, but that may just have been a temporary hitch, and he is not regarded as a major potential spoiler.
The other nine signatories represent all the major armed groups in the CAR, including the predominantly Muslim groups that make up the ex-Séléka rebel coalition. Importantly, the coordinator and self-styled leader of the anti-Balaka, Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, also signed.
See: Armed groups in CAR
Most signatories were leaders of the groups’ political wings. There was dissent from at least one rebel commander.
“It’s good that the politicians have agreed to sign, but the realities on the ground are another thing,” Joseph Zoundeiko, military leader of the ex-Séléka Popular Rally for the Renewal of Central Africa (RPRC), was reported as saying after the signing ceremony.
But RPRC political chief Djono Ahaba, nephew of former Séléka leader Djotodia, played down the significance of Zoundeiko’s remarks.
“As for the attitude of certain officers, that’s a problem the group will solve. So it (the RPRC) stays firmly within the peace process,” he said.