Chaos and madness, rapes looting pilaging,are unleased in Central African Republic.

[waltky]

Handicapped people suffer in C.A.R....

People with disabilities at risk in Central African Republic
Jun 22,`17 -- Simplice Lenguy told his wife to leave him behind as people fled when fighting broke out in Central African Republic's capital.

"I said, 'Take the children. You go to the camp. I am handicapped. I can't flee like the others. If something happens to me, at least my family will be safe,'" Lenguy, who is disabled from polio, recounted in an interview with The Associated Press. His wife refused and forced him to come with her, even when he lost consciousness because of the pain. For years Central African Republic has seen widespread violence that has displaced more than 500,000 people. This week at least 100 people were killed in fighting in the town of Bria. Those with disabilities are a "forgotten people within a forgotten crisis" at high risk during attacks and forced displacement, facing neglect in an ongoing humanitarian crisis, according to Lewis Mudge, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which released a report this week on their challenges.

The country has faced deadly violence since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back, resulting in thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. It is not known how many of the displaced are people with disabilities, but Human Rights Watch said conditions at camps are not conducive for them. Some have trouble getting food during distributions, while others have challenges using showers and toilets that lack ramps.

Hamamatou Harouna, 10, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge in Carnot, Central African Republic. Human Rights Watch says people with disabilities in Central African Republic are at high risk during attacks and forced displacement, facing neglect in an ongoing humanitarian crisis.​

The new report said one man with a physical disability was killed in November 2014 while trying to crawl away from attacking Seleka fighters in the town of Bolo. And when anti-Balaka forces attacked the village of Ngbima the same month, they killed 28 civilians, including a 25-year-old woman with a bad foot who could not move quickly. She was burned alive inside her home, said the report. With half of Central Africa Republic's population in need of humanitarian assistance, Mudge said people with disabilities do not get the "protection and assistance they desperately need."

Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. peacekeeping mission and other U.N. agencies to monitor and report abuses against people with disabilities and commit resources to improving humanitarian aid. In 2015, the U.N. Security Council's mandate for the peacekeeping mission expressed "serious concern about the dire situation of persons with disabilities in the CAR including abandonment, violence and lack of access to basic services." However, when the mandate was renewed by the U.N. Security Council in 2016, no language on people with disabilities was included. The human rights chief for the U.N. peacekeeping mission had "no statement" on why the language wasn't included. However, Musa Yerro Gassama said the U.N. continues to work on the issue with aid groups.

Central African Republic's government doesn't have the capacity to support people with disabilities, Mudge said. And U.N. officials say humanitarian funding for the country is only at 28 percent. Once Lenguy recovered from his journey to the camp for those displaced in Bangui, he started organizing others with disabilities into a group to demand more aid. They seek support to replace lost canes and tricycles, rebuild homes and provide vocational assistance. Despite the challenges, the 40-year-old Lenguy said he's "very optimistic." He said he wants people with disabilities to have a role in the government and play a role in their country's future. "We, people with disabilities, are ready to help the country to develop," he said.

News from The Associated Press

 

[Stone-Eater]

Chaos and madness are unleased in the Central African Republic. Along with wanton rapings and looting. These have been the reports coming out of Bangui, the capitial city of the CAR.
What will America and the U.N. do to stop this insanity.?

I thought you Africans wanted the white man out of Africa? Why should we do anything???

Ask south Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Nigeria to clean up the mess.

Do you really think that colonism is over ? What has been the military before are now IMF/World Bank/Wall Street, even the UN. Name me ONE African president from Bongo to Sall to Nguesso which is NOT a puppet of Western interests.

I've been living in West Africa on and off for 25 years, and that's my final analysis.

BTW: The ones who wanted to free their country from Western pressure and influence were killed or ousted, see Nkrumah, Sankara, or .... wait for Venezuela's Maduro being ousted. Why ? Because they have resources they want to keep for THEMSELVES.

 

[waltky]

Rape as a weapon of war...

Militia commits mass rape: MSF
Sat, Mar 10, 2018 - PEACE AND STABILITY: Gabon is to withdraw its soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, despite a surge in violence that started in 2016

Militia fighters attacked, kidnapped and raped en masse a large group of women in an isolated area of the Central African Republic last month, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday. The medical charity treated 10 survivors of the Feb. 17 violence near Kiriwiri, a village in the country’s northwest. Fearing further attacks if they tried to reach a hospital, the women were unable to seek medical treatment until about two weeks later, it said. Many other victims remained behind, fearing that, as rape victims, they would be stigmatized in their community. “Some were totally in shock, others paralyzed by fear or unable to talk about the incident. Some of the women had open wounds caused by blades,” said Soulemane Amoin, a midwife at the hospital in the town of Bossangoa where the women were treated. “It was terrible to see. It broke my heart,” Amoin added.

The Central African Republic descended into chaos after mainly Seleka rebels ousted then-Central African president Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a spate of killing by Anti-Balaka militias. Despite the deployment of a 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission, rival armed groups still stalk much of the countryside. The UN Security Council approved an extra 900 peacekeepers in November last year to help to protect civilians. However, Gabon, which contributes about 550 soldiers to the mission, on Thursday announced it was planning to withdraw its contingent, citing what it said was a “progressive return of peace and stability.” The rapes near Kiriwiri coincided with a surge in violence in Bossangoa and the surrounding areas.

In its statement, MSF said the women had left their village to fetch water and tend to their fields when the militiamen arrived. Some women fled, but others were grabbed and brought back to the militia’s base where they were repeatedly raped before being let go, it said. MSF did not identify the group behind the assault. “This attack is one of the consequences of the new wave of senseless violence that broke out at the end of 2016 and continues without let-up,” said Paul Brockmann, who heads MSF’s mission in the Central African Republic. The hospital at Bossangoa has treated 56 rape victims since September last year, up from 13 in the previous eight months, MSF reported. It has also treated about 300 victims of rape and sexual assault from around the country each month so far this year at Castor Maternity Hospital in the nation’s capital, Bangui.

Militia commits mass rape: MSF - Taipei Times

 

[Mindful]

The same thing they did in Rwanda. Nothing.

Just been watching the American peacekeepers there. They and the rest of the UN are not allowed to intervene. What's the point of them?

The sight of rotting body parts, the plight of small children. It's heartbreaking.