Conflicts In The Central African Republic
Introduction
War is everywhere we look, it’s armed conflict. War and destruction is prevalent in the Central African Republic. Conflict in this country has deeply affected all who live here. The war between Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic, has caused hundreds of thousands of refugees and Internally displaced persons (IDPs). About the Nation The county Central African Republic (CAR) is located in Africa. It is next to 6 countries including Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. CAR has lush, hot and dry winters accompanied by damp, mild to blazing summers. In the southern part of CAR there are 2 rivers, the Ubangi and the Sangha rivers. The population of CAR is 5,745,062. The ethnic groups are the Baya 33%, Banda 27%, Mandjia 13%, Sara 10%, Mboum 7%, M’Baka 4%, Yakima 4%, and other 2%. The official language is French, and the schools are based off of French schools. Sometimes the country is not happy about the way the schools are working because sometimes schools don't fit the country’s preference. Just about ⅔ of the county’s population cannot read. CAR is run by a presidential republic. They have a constitution and a court with judges like the Supreme Court. The president is Catherine Samba-Panza with Mahamat Kamoun as the Prime Minister. There are many different types of religions, including: Indigenous beliefs 35%, Protestant 25%, Roman Catholic 25%, and Muslim 15%. A part of the culture is that women are very important. They do jobs like preparing food, gathering, production, conservation and distribution. Males hunt and fish. Churches are very meaningful in urban and rural communities. Football (soccer) is the most favored sport for the Central Africans. The most vital thing that they use for communication is the radio. CAR is in the middle of Africa, and it is not touching any bodies of water. Some of its natural resources are diamonds, hydropower, timber, gold, oil and uranium. Floods are frequent even though it is a dry climate. The government is currently still getting annoyed by protests. In June 2005, there was a fight between the government and antagonistic forces which caused many people to leave their homes and cross the outer edge into Chad.
Challenges and Conflicts
The turmoil that CAR is having is both religious and political. The conflict began as a religious problem in 2013, it involves Muslims and Christians. Christianity was the leading religion at the time. Muslims came into CAR and took power. Christians stood up and are fighting the Muslims for their county. After a little while, it became a political problem. The government became involved. At that time, an election was currently going on. Also, the country was undergoing change including a constitutional vote. In 2013, Bozizé was elected as the leader of the country. A group of rebels called Seleka, disagreed with Bozizé. Therefore, they started killing, kidnapping and other forms of violence. This led to the displacement of about 800,000 people. From 2014 to 2016, the U.N. Security Council came into CAR and tried to help out. After they left, the violence continued. By the beginning of 2018, ⅕RU to ¼ of the population had become IDPs or refugees in bordering countries. The violence still continues today. Refugees Experience In the country CAR there are currently 655,000 Independently Displaced Persons (IDPs). There have been 598,000 refugees from CAR. The refugees have fled to six countries. Those countries include Chad, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over half of the refugees have fled to Cameroon. Refugees have gotten to those countries on foot. While they are traveling, they have very little water and food. 1 in every 5 children are refugees or IDPs. There are over 850,000 people on the move, half of that being kids. UNICEF can’t reach all kids because of funding restrictions, so projects they want to do can’t happen. UNICEF asked for $55.6 million but only received $20.4 million. The uncertainty of the outcome of the problem, has blocked most of the 920,000 displaced in the beginning of 2014 from coming home. Violence and extensive displacement has made kids even more vulnerable to illness (health risks), abuse and getting taken advantage of. More than one third of children are out of school. 41% of children under the age of 5 are suffering from starvation. About 6,000 to 10,000 have been taken into armed forces since 2013. Recently, repeated harsh violence have forced non-governmental groups to substantially scale down their interference in sections of the countries which is delaying the process of the CAR recovery plan. There was an attack on the Kaga Bandoro camp for IDPs last month. That left 37 dead, including some people from UNICEF. UNICEF is working with the government and others to help with education. They have trained more than 1,300 teachers and began building/repairing more than 172 schools in 2016. The European nation and the Global partnership for education helped fund this project.
Some later projects are to improve current healthcare, help get access to clean water, and to offer mental support to children who have known/seen/been a part of violence.RU Moving Forward UNICEF plans to help CAR in all the ways that they can. UNICEF hopes to have 30, 570 children 6 to 59 months old with severe acute malnutrition get therapeutic care. Another thing they are doing is 82,068 people and children who are younger than 5 years, in location for IDPs and islands that have access to mandatory health care, services and medicines. One more thing they are doing is, 3,000 kids related from armed forces or groups benefiting from being able to live with people with different social classes and case management support. The Plan International’s plan is to help conflict-affected kids to get an education, to help young people achieve the knowledge and skills they need to live. Another part of Plan International’s plan is to protect children from all forms of violence, exploitation, and disrespect. Also, they want to provide young children the best start in life through Pre-K centers that address their health, education and safety. Conclusionmso-fareast-language:RU The conflict consisting of Christians and Mulsilms in the Central African Republic has led to a massive amount of refugees and IDPs. The war in CAR is both religious and political. CAR refugees have fled to 6 countries and violence has made kids vulnerable to illness. 41% of children under the age of 5 are suffering from starvation. UNICEF is going to attempt to help CAR in all the ways that they can. Some day, sooner or later, the war and the violence will disappear and CAR can start rebuilding its economy.
