Women with their mouths covered with pieces of cloth demonstrate in the CAR capital, Bangui, protest about violence against women with an action called "bandaged mouth". Picture: AFP/Pacome Pabandi. Source: AFP
IT'S a country you may never have heard of with one of the youngest populations in the world, but where unspeakable acts of violence and terror are acted every day.
Villages are torched, women and children are murdered, raped and tortured.
Bizarre reports even include a young boy being bound and thrown to crocodiles, a snake swallowing a baby, a child's throat being slit and a woman bludgeoned to death with firearms.
Children under the age of ten are dragooned into the army to fight.
Public executions are held in villages.
Infested with malaria, the country is unable to provide medicine for its population, half of which are under the age of 18.
Welcome to the Central African Republic, which authorities are warning is on the brink of civil war.
A fighter from the Muslim militia group Seleka fighter outside the country’s firefighters barrack headquarters which have been turned into a Seleka base. Picture: AFP/ Xavier Bourgois. Source: AFP
The United Nations has called the crisis in the country "one of the worst human rights and humanitarian crises of our time."
France, the country's original colonising power, warned the CAR was "on the verge of genocide", as the UN considers sending thousands of peacekeepers to the strife-torn country.
"It's total disorder," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, adding the United Nations was considering authorising troops to intervene.
But with up to half a million displaced people sheltering in Catholic missions, hiding in the jungle or having fled to neighbouring countries, the army is expected to achieve little.
So where is the Central African Republic and why is it such a terrible crisis?
The Central African Republic is “on the brink on genocide”. Source: Supplied
Where is it?
A landlocked country bordered by Chad, Cameroon, Sudan and the Congo, it is three quarters the size of NSW and with a population similar to Sydney, except most people are aged between 15 and 24 and life expectancy ranges between 48 for men and 51 for women.
A child soldier of the Seleka military coalition sitting on a pick-up truck near the Presidential palace in Bangui. Picture: AFP/Sia Kambou. Source: AFP
What is its history and economy?
Colonised by the French in the late 19th century, it became independent in 1960 and has since been ruled by presidents who either were unelected, or took power by political or military coup.
It has had one emperor, Bokassa, who lived a lavish lifestyle raiding the country's wealth and who was thought an insane, egotistical dictator.
CAR has considerable resources, including gold, diamonds, uranium and oil, but is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Central African security forces patrol the capital Bangui. Picture: AFP/Pacome Pabandi. Source: AFP
What caused the current chaos?
The CAR has been plagued by instability since a coup by the Seleka, a rebel coalition which ousted longtime president Francois Bozize in March.
A Seleka leader, Michel Djotodia, named himself president and his fighters continue to stage attacks and robberies.
Armed gangs, mainly former Seleka loyalists, now dominate outside the capital, Bangui.
The CAR is 80 per cent Christian, but the rebels emerged from the Muslim minority clustered in the north near the borders of Chad and Sudan to attack Christian villages.
Christian militias have recently launched retaliatory attacks.
Displaced people who fled from the rebel Seleka coalition in a camp in Bossangoa, in the north of the Central African Republic. Picture: AP/Florence Richard. Source: AP
What are the people doing?
More than 35,000 other people have sought refuge at another Catholic mission in Bossangoa, according to church officials there.
In the northwest town of Bouca, nun Angelina Santaguiliana said she lives in fear of a rebel attack on her Catholic mission.
Already some 2,400 people have sought refuge there in the past week, crowding the floors of the church at night and taking shelter under trees on the mission's yard.
In the nation's capital, a thousand women staged a silent rally outside parliament in the strife-torn Central African Republic on Monday, their mouths bandaged in a mute protest against violence towards women.
"Stop violence against women. I am not an object,'' or "no to murders, torture, rape'' read banners held by the women.
Schoolchildren and students protest against the murder of the director of the Central African Judiciary services, Martineau Bria. Picture: AFP. Source: AFP
What happens next?
The French have decided to send in troops, while the UN decides on a peacekeeping force,
but it is not clear how much can be accomplished by 1,000 French soldiers in a country of 4.6 million people, where many roads have not been repaved since independence in 1960.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned yesterday the violence could spread to neighbouring countries.
"It is not called Central Africa for nothing ... if the centre of Africa implodes, you will see the consequences," Fabius said.
SOURCE;NEWS
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