Special report on central african republic 2014 en

OIC Journal Supplement

Central Africa...Massacres & Displacement Special Report on Central African Republic - Issued by OIC - Information Department

Political and humanitarian actions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the ground

Location, population, and recent history The Central African Republic (CAR) is bordered by Chad in the north, Sudan in the northeast, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about 620,000 square kilometers (240,000 sq mi) and has an estimated population of around 4.4 million. The capital is Bangui.

According to official estimates, Muslims represent 15 per cent of the population, but according to informed diplomatic sources operating in the Central African Republic, the percentage of Muslims is about 20 to 25 per cent of the population, and the largest percentage of them live in the north of the country near the borders of Chad and Sudan, while the percentage of Christians is around 45 to 50 per cent, and the rest of the population maintain indigenous beliefs.

The Central African Republic is a former French colony from 1889 until 1959. David Dacko (1959-1966) presided over the state after independence, then overthrown by self-named “Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1966-1979), and then David Dacko again (1979-1981), overthrown by Andre Kolingba ( 1981-1993), then Ange-Felix Patassé (1993 2003) was elected, then François Bozizé (2003 2013) took power, then Michel Djotodia (the first Muslim president) took over from April 2013 until December 2013, and finally the head of the transitional government, Catherine SambaPanza as of December 2013 until now.

The political history of Central African Republic is full of coups and political turmoil, and witnessed sporadic armed and bloody conflicts, the most recent war broke out in December 2012 when the coalition called (Seleka) toppled President Bozizé and controlled the government; the majority of this coalition is Muslim. In reaction came a state of rejection among the Christian majority and they formed a militia called (anti-Balaka).

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Anti-Balaka or anti-machete The group anti-Balaka (anti means against in English and Balaka means machete or sword in the Sangu local language) emerged in September 2013. This armed militia, made up of self-defense rural groups, including a group of Christian farmers followers of President BozizĂŠ in the northwest of the country, started targeting Muslims in response to the abuses committed by armed men from the ranks of the rebel coalition Seleka. Anti Balaka committed killing sprees and atrocities against Muslim civilians, despite their inability to achieve any results in the face of the Seleka coalition. The crimes against Muslims by this militia included burning and amputating bodies, destruction of mosques and the displacement of large numbers of Muslim population.

Violence leads to displacement

Targeting Muslims

The atrocities and sectarian violence had devastating effects on both communities, where there are still more than 600 thousand people displaced within Central Africa, as of May 2014. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more than 350 thousand refugees who have fled the violence in the Central African Republic to neighboring countries such as Cameroon, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The recent bloody events taking place in the CAR, carried out by the militia anti-Balaka since the fifth of December, have caused the displacement and refuge of almost a million Muslims, according to our sources’ estimates. The capital Bangui has been purged of Muslims where there are only now about 2000 Muslims remaining out of an estimated 250 thousand, holed up in the central mosque and hiding in some areas. Muslims were subjected to violence, mass killing, human rights abuses and looting of their property and the demolition of their homes, in addition to the demolition of around 400 mosques.

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The OIC acts at the political level The OIC followed closely the crisis in the Central African Republic since it erupted, and began its response by issuing a statement where the Secretary General strongly condemned the escalation of violence and the worsening of civilian mass killings, expressing hope that the election of Ms. Catherine Samba-Panza as interim president would bring peace and restore stability in the country and the region.

The General Secretariat called for an open-ended emergency meeting of the Executive Committee at the ministerial level. The meeting was held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Jeddah on February 20, 2014. Among the key decisions made by the meeting is to send a high-level delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Guinea, Lounceny Fall, the current Chairman of the Council of Foreign Ministers, to carry out an urgent visit to the capital, Bangui, to express solidarity and assess the situation and communicate with the authorities in Central African Republic, and to contribute to the rapprochement dialogue. The meeting also decided to appoint a special envoy of the Secretary General to lead efforts to resolve the crisis and build peace.

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A high-level ministerial delegation visits CAR and neighboring countries On 29-30 April 2014, a high level Ministerial delegation of the

Special Envoy of the OIC The Secretary General of OIC appointed Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio as special envoy to the Central African Republic. Gadio is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Senegal, an experienced mediator, academic and a prominent politician. He has served his country as head of diplomacy over nearly a decade, from the beginning of 2000 until 2009. He is currently the President of an independent think tank and research center (Institute for PanAfrican Strategies) based in Dakar, Senegal.

Dr. Gadio conducted several visits the region to prepare for the visit of the high-level ministerial delegation.

OIC made a solidarity and assessment visit to the conflict torn Central African Republic (CAR), an Observer Member in the OIC. The delegation led by the Chairman of the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Foreign Minister of Guinea, Lounceny Fall, included representatives from members of the OIC Executive Committee, the OIC Secretary General, Iyad Ameen Madani and the OIC Special Envoy for CAR, Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.

During the historic field visit, the delegation held series of meetings in Bangui, the capital with the Transitional Authorities in CAR including the President, Catherine Samba-Panza, the Prime Minister, Andre Nzapayeke with several Ministers in attendance, the President of the Transitional Parliament in the presence of many members of the Assembly, representatives of faith leaders and the civil society. It also had fruitful exchanges with key international partners who briefed it on the security, political and humanitarian situation in the country.

The delegation also paid a visit to the Central Mosque where it examined the pathetic condition of the hundreds of Muslims who have been trapped inside the premises and interacted with them on the way forward. The delegation underscored the sanctity of the unity and territorial integrity of CAR to all its interlocutors, but called for an immediate end to all forms of violence against Muslims, highlighted their right to safety and insisted on the protection of their fundamental rights as citizens of CAR. As part of its mission, the delegation paid visits to the Republic of Congo where it reviewed the crisis with President Denis Sassou Ngesso in his capacity as regional mediator in the conflict in CAR. It similarly visited the Republic of Chad where it listened to the perspective of and received guidance from the leader of the regional body of Central African States, President Idriss Deby, on the crisis in CAR.

The Secretary General’s proposal to resolve the crisis The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation proposed a regional paradigm of concerned neighboring countries to find a radical solution to the bloody conflict in the Central African Republic. The proposal came during the meeting of the high-level ministerial delegation with the President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Ngesso, the mediator in the crisis in Central Africa, in the capital Brazzaville. The Secretary General during the meeting with President Ngesso expressed the will of the OIC to find a political solution out of the crisis in the Central African Republic. The Secretary General stressed on the need for a national dialogue that satisfies all parties, as the success of the national dialogue will undoubtedly contribute to the return of peace and security of the country. www.oic-oci.org

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OIC acts at the humanitarian level Based on the recommendations of the Executive Committee on the situation in Central Africa, the Secretary General gave instructions to send a humanitarian mission jointly with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). During the period 14 to 21 May, 2014, the OIC delegation embarked on its humanitarian mission to the Central African Republic, Chad, and Cameroon. The mission held consultations with officials in the countries concerned by the crisis to discuss ways to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the affected displaced persons and refugees, as well as to obtain preliminary information on the ground by visiting the camps for displaced people in the CAR and the refugee camps in both Cameroon and Chad.

The OIC and IDB mission formed a humanitarian alliance to work under the banner of the Organization. The Alliance includes several agencies and humanitarian organizations in the Member States and in other countries such as the International Islamic Relief Organization in Saudi Arabia, the Turkish Red Cross, the Turkish IHH organization, Turkey’s Doctors Around the World, Qatar’s Charity Foundation, Britain’s Islamic Relief, and Britain’s Islamic Aid. The OIC Humanitarian Alliance mission proceeded with its first emergency projects for the benefit of refugees in the Republic of Chad who fled the grinding conflict in the CAR. The IDB pledged to provide a million dollars in special aid for the implementation of several educational and service projects. The Bank will establish integrated schools to accommodate 750 male and female students from the refugee children in camps in the south of Chad, in addition to providing educational materials and furniture for those schools. The project also includes three water wells serving 12 thousand people, 650 fully equipped shelter tents and 91 toilets.

Refugee camps in Chad Earlier, the OIC and the Islamic Solidarity Fund (ISF) provided humanitarian assistance to Chad, which includes 250 tents, 6 boreholes, and a power generator of 101-KVA capacity, to the returnees and refugees at the Zafala Camp, located at the Gaoui site in the capital Ndjamena. Six thousand returnees from the Central African Republic have been transferred to the Camp by the Chadian authorities following their efforts to evacuate the over-crowded social centers in the capital city.

Medical supplies were also distributed to returnees and refugees, including food and non-food items, to centers in Sahr, Sido, Doba and Mbitoye, where thousands of affected people have sought refuge after fleeing from the CAR. The joint OIC-ISF (Islamic Solidarity Fund) humanitarian delegation which visited Chad on 23 January to 1 February, 2014, led by Ambassador Atta El-Manan Bakhit, OIC Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, held official talks with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Social Affairs, and the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chad. During the meetings, the joint OIC-ISF delegation received a comprehensive picture of the humanitarian situation prevailing in the country, resulting from the massive influx of returnees and refugees from the Central African Republic.

Meanwhile, the OIC Secretary General, Iyad Ameen Madani, urged all humanitarian stakeholders within the Islamic Ummah to extend urgent assistance to Chad. The OIC Secretary General noted that the humanitarian needs were huge and on the increase both in Ndjamena and within border towns such as Sido, Sarh, Doba, Doyoba, Mbitoye and Gore where, according to official figures, close to 50,000 people have been encountering serious humanitarian problems due to lack of shelters, latrines, boreholes, non-food and food items.

Madani hence requested governments, civil society organizations as well as philanthropists to generously donate so as to alleviate the suffering of the growing number of returnees and refugees in Chad, which has been swelling since the beginning of the crisis in the CAR. There are more than 100 thousand refugees in Chad since the outbreak of the crisis in the Central African Republic in December 2103 who have been sheltered by various international humanitarian organizations in around 12 camps set up in each of N’Djamena, Sarh, Sido, Doba, Baibokoum, and Gore. The OIC and the Islamic Solidarity Fund has contributed to the setting up hundreds of tents, several water wells and electricity generators, in addition to providing large quantities of food and medicine.

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In the visit of the OIC Humanitarian Mission to the Zafala camp in Gaoui region on the outskirts of the capital, N›Djamena, the refugees expressed their suffering from lack of food quantities, which currently consists of oil, pasta and wheat flour, and of the diseases that kill their children. There is an urgent need to provide shelter camps, where currently around 15 people reside in one tent, the size of which is 16 square meters. There is a modest medical clinic supervised by a midwife, and it needs to be provided with specialized medical staff. The clinic receives 25 patients a day who suffer from inflammation of the stomach and loss of appetite and a rise in temperature.

The Zafala camp hosts around five thousand refugees, 50 per cent of whom are women, and 15 per cent children. The area of the camp is ten hectares, while outside the camp there are about a thousand people waiting to be sheltered.

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Camps for displaced people and an office in Bangui In the PK5 district where the remaining Muslims are sheltered in the capital, Bangui, and who do not exceed a few thousand in number, the OIC Humanitarian Alliance mission met with the religious leaders. The mission members explained to them the objectives of the mission, which includes providing emergency relief and contribute to the rehabilitation of the community, emphasizing that the assistance will be provided to all those affected by the crisis, and that the OIC is

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committed to the humanitarian issue in Central Africa as announced by the Secretary General during his visit at the end of April 2014.

Because of the siege, the Muslims holed up in PK5 district suffer from lack of food and medicine, and cannot find burying ground or cemeteries for their dead so they bury them within their living areas.

The mission held meetings with officials in the capital, Bangui, including the Prime Minister, Andre Nzapayeke, where it was agreed that there was a need to open an OIC office in Bangui to coordinate the work of humanitarian organizations operating under the umbrella of the OIC. During the meeting with the Prime Minister, a mutual desire was expressed to increase the level of cooperation between the Organization and the Central African Republic. The Prime Minister valued the rapid response of the Secretary General in delivering on his promise of sending a humanitarian mission and after only two weeks of the high-level ministerial delegation’s visit.

The mission conducted a field tour of the camps for displaced people in the district of Kilo12 near the airport of the capital, Bangui, during which it was briefed on the conditions of the displaced and determined their immediate needs. The mission also observed the conditions of displaced people in the Nasraddine School and Mosque.

The mission also met with civil society organizations and international organizations working in the capital, Bangui, to explain the objectives and program of the humanitarian mission of the OIC.

Refugee camps in Cameroon The OIC humanitarian mission stood at the situation on the ground of the Muslim refugees who are in the northern regions of Cameroon and adjacent to the southern border of the Central African Republic. The members of the mission visited some refugee camps in northern Cameroon, and discussed with officials at the camps and the refugees on the urgent needs, marked by the lack of adequate food, drinking water, and shelter tents.

The Muslim refugees in Cameroon who fled the violence complain of the large number of snakes and mosquitoes, and the diseases that kill their children. There are in Cameroon alone, some 150 thousand refugees sheltered in a dozen main camps and other camps scattered along the border with the Central African Republic.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), many of the refugees arriving from the Central African Republic to the east of Cameroon are malnourished and diseased after weeks of walking and hiding in the bush. The mortality rate among children refugees have

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increased in the recent period; in only 12 days 29 children have died, the youngest a baby and the oldest was nine years old. The main causes of death are drought, hypothermia and severe anemia.

Refugees complain of diseases and snakes, share clips of cannibalism on their mobiles The refugee Ibrahim Hamed stands with his mother, wife and six children in front of their tent in the Zafala Camp on the outskirts of the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, screening on his mobile clips of members of the anti-Balaka. According to Ibrahim, they are grilling the bodies of Muslims whom they have killed and devour the human flesh, showing off in front of the cameras, and chanting phrases in defiance of God: “O God, we eat Muslims.”

This scene is repeated in camps for the displaced Muslims in the capital, Bangui, and in refugee camps in the eastern part of Cameroon, where the refugee Fatima Mohammed says she witnessed large number of anti-Balaka members eat a Muslim citizen, Osman Mohamed, in the Bauru area on the outskirts of the capital, Bangui.

Although the sufferings are similar of the refugees in camps in Chad and Cameroon, which is the lack of food and clean water and the various diseases killing their children as well as the roaming of poisonous snakes, each of them has a different story.

Adam Idris says he quit his job in agriculture in the Arsia district and he and his family spent a month and a half walking through the woods and bushes to eventually reach eastern Cameroon and join one of the refugee camps. Adam Idris like other refugees who fled from CAR to Cameroon could not use the main roads controlled by members of the antiBalaka group, otherwise they would have been killed, so they escaped through the side roads and the forest.

As for the refugee Ismail Haroon (42 years) in N’Djamena, Chad says he worked as director of a branch of the Moroccan Bank in Central Africa, and was paid a salary of 613 thousand Central African franc (around a thousand Euros). At the

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outbreak of the events he deported his family to Chad then he fled in an ambulance to the Nigerian Embassy near his home and caught up with his family in N’Djamena. Ismail adds that he witnessed the attack and demolition of mosques and the killings with firearms and machetes, pointing out that thousands of the people fleeing Bangui were killed on the road.

During the 5 to 11 early morning hours on the fifth of December 2014, when the crisis in Central Africa erupted, the refugee Isaac Brima (35 years) says that he saw around 200 people get killed with machetes, and when the wave of violence that day quieted a little, he took his brothers to hide in a poor area in PK5 in Bangui and stayed there for nearly a month before being able to catch up with the Chadian army cars out of Bangui.

The refugee Abdullah Sharif, a cousin of the former president, Michel Djotodia who is currently in Benin, says he served as vice president of the Moroccan Bank in Bangui. He adds that members of the anti-Balaka demolished four of his houses and looted the furniture. He managed to escape from violence through the Moroccan Embassy in Bangui.

Humanitarian needs and urgent solutions Resolving the crisis in the Central African Republic, at the political level, requires immediate intervention of the international community to disarm the militias in order to restore stability and security.

At the humanitarian level, the refugee camps require urgent aid to meet the needs for shelter, food and medicine in Central Africa, Chad and Cameroon. According to the reports of the OIC Humanitarian Affairs Department, the cost of the urgent humanitarian aid needed is around 10.5 million US dollars.

For the return of the displaced and the refugees to their homes and to regain calm in the capital Bangui requires the rebuilding of the homes of Muslims which were destroyed in the PK12 district, as well as the rebuilding of the homes of Christians who are sheltered in camps near the airport at the PK5 district and return them to their homes, in addition to launching a national rapprochement dialogue.

yet still smiling

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