French & African Troops Play Intervention In CAR

[biblical]

Once again, for the thousandth time, we are witnessing what happens to defenseless and unarmed populations, who cannot fight back?
And once again, the same failed solutions are being applied, for the thousandth time hoping against hope that it will work this time?
Has the world and the so-called saviors learned anything after doing the very same thing so many times and producing the same failed results?
How many interventions is it going to take before the obvious lessons are learned? Are the foreign troops going to stay in the CAR forever? And what will happen, when the foreign troops finally leave?
Why should a few dozen gunmen terrorize thousands of grown men and women, forcing them to flee and turning their lives upside down?
For a very small fraction of the money being spent on the current intervention, past interventions, future interventions and the cost of caring for refugees, every able-bodied man and woman could be given a gun, with enough bullets and a few mortars and rocket launchers to for each town?
Most people in every country are good people and would like to live in peace, and with proper weapons they will organize themselves and manage their own security, protect their families, property, neighborhoods, villages and towns?
Good people far outnumber bad people and if properly armed they will always prevail over any group or gang of bad actors?
People should be given the means and allowed to take their own fate in their hands? This never-ending 'babysitting' policy should be abandoned? No people should be treated like helpless children forever?
The best help is to help people to help themselves. This all too familiar sad TV drama must come to an end.

 

[waltky]

UN gonna send troops into CAR...

UN approves 12,000-strong force for Central African Republic
April 10, 2014 ~ The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously authorized an almost 12,000-member peacekeeping force for the Central African Republic, where fighting between Christians and Muslims has been raging for months.

The U.N. force will take over from nearly 6,000 African Union troops already deployed in the country, many of whom are expected to be incorporated into the new operation. A separate 2,000-member force sent by former colonial ruler France is authorized to support the U.N. mission, which will assume authority Sept. 15. The mineral-rich but deeply impoverished country plunged into anarchy when the Muslim-dominated Seleka rebel coalition seized power in March 2013. Rebel leader Michel Djotodia was accused by human rights groups of failing to rein in abuses by his followers, who raped, looted and killed. After his government collapsed in January, local self-defense groups made up mostly of Christians and animists turned their fury on Muslim civilians, whom they accused of supporting the rebels.

People have been hacked to death by machete-wielding mobs. Homes, businesses and places of worship have been ransacked and set on fire. The scale of the violence has led to an exodus of Muslims from western parts of the country, which U.N. officials have described as “ethnic-religious cleansing.” During a visit to the Central African Republic on Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the French and African troops in the country were “overwhelmed.” He urged world leaders to heed the lessons of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, when more than 800,000 people died after majority Hutus went against minority Tutsis. “The international community failed the people of Rwanda 20 years ago. And we are at risk of not doing enough for the people of the CAR today,” Ban said.

Children sit up front at a Catholic church service in Obo, Central African Republic, where U.S. special operations forces assist in a mission to end the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group.

The resolution submitted by France and approved by the Security Council’s 15 members Thursday authorizes U.N. peacekeepers to protect civilians, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, support the disarmament of combatants and help the transitional government extend state authority and prepare for elections. It also authorizes the U.N. force to investigate abuses and help bring to justice those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. International human rights groups had complained for months that the international response to the crisis was not sufficient to stem the violence in a country about the size of Texas. Philippe Bolopion, the United Nations director at Human Rights Watch, called the approval of a U.N. peacekeeping mission “great news, but not an immediate game changer.” In comments posted on Twitter, he urged the United Nations to carefully vet the troops it takes from the African Union force, some of whom have been accused of contributing to the violence.

Last week, Chad announced that it would withdraw its 850 peacekeeping troops from the Central African Republic following accusations that Chadian soldiers killed about 30 people and injured more than 300 others at a heavily Christian market in the capital, Bangui, last month. U.N. investigators have said that the troops involved were members of Chad’s national army, who were sent to extract its nationals because they have been subject to attacks, and not members of the African Union force. The bloodshed continues with fighting between rival militias in the central town of Dekoa reported to have killed as many as 30 people this week. The clashes began Tuesday when Christian militiamen attacked the town, where fighters from the now disbanded Seleka had a tenuous hold, a local priest told The Associated Press. Most of the dead were civilians, killed when the ex-Seleka fired into a crowd of people they mistook for Christian militiamen, according to the priest, Everaldo de Suza.

UN approves 12,000-strong force for Central African Republic - Africa - Stripes

 

[waltky]

Chaos in CAR conflict continues...

GIRL LEFT IN FOREST IN C. AFRICAN REPUBLIC CHAOS
Jun 2,`14 -- When gunfire rang out through the village just after dawn, when neighbors dropped their coffee to flee, even when her mother grabbed three younger children and ran for her life, the 10-year-old girl did not budge.

It was not terror that pinned Hamamatou Harouna to the ground, although she was terrified. It was that polio had left her unable to walk. So all she could do was wait and watch, paralyzed, as the vicious war between Muslims and Christians in Central African Republic came to her village. The Christian fighters were going from door to door, and she wondered if she would die. That's when her 12-year-old brother came to her rescue. Barely bigger than his sister, Souleymane struggled to hoist her, all 40 pounds of her, onto his back. Around his neck she clasped her calloused hands, dirty from pulling herself over the ground. They set off, barefoot, disappearing into the dense tropical forest as fast as they could manage. Her legs could not hook onto her brother's back, and her body drooped like a dead weight. Hamamatou had never felt so heavy in her life.

---

Over the past year, conflict between Muslims and Christians has killed thousands of people in the Central African Republic, a nation of about 4.6 million that sits almost precisely at the heart of Africa. As families flee, it is often children who carry the weight of the crisis on their backs. Nearly half a million children have been displaced by violence in the country last year, with many hiding out in forests, according to UNICEF. Hundreds have become separated from their families, lost or simply too slow to keep up. That's what left Hamamatou and her brother trudging along the red dirt path on an unlikely journey that would reflect a world turned upside down by the complexities of war. The AP pieced together the story from interviews with the girl over two weeks and information from witnesses, health workers, priests and medical records.

Hamamatou Harouna, center, crawls to the restroom on the grounds of the Catholic Church where she and hundreds of others found refuge in Carnot, Central African Republic. Hammamatou, who had lost the use of her legs to polio, fled Anti-Balaka violence in her village, carried on the back of her 12-year-old brother Souleymane. She spent 10 days alone in the forest.

Hamamatou, a Muslim girl, grew up in Guen, a village so remote that it can hardly be reached during the rainy season. Before the conflict, it was home to about 2,500 Muslims, a quarter of the population, many of whom worked as diamond miners. Today only three remain. Life had not been kind to Hamamatou. She lost her father at age 7. A year later, her limbs withered from polio, a disease that had almost died worldwide but is now coming back in countries torn by war and poverty. The pain started in her toes, and a traditional healer could do little for her. Within a month, she could no longer walk. Soon she had to crawl across the dirt. Most days she helped her mother sell tiny plastic bags of salt and okra, each one tied firmly with a knot. Hamamatou had never been to school a day in her life, but she spoke two African languages and knew how to make change.

Her brother, Souleymane, doted on her like a parent, helping her get around as best he could. With what little money he had, he bought her stunning silver earrings, with chains that swayed from a ball in each ear. On the day of the attack, Christian militia fighters burst out of the forest with machetes and rifles to seek revenge on the civilians they accused of supporting Muslim rebels. Hamamatou's mother scooped up her baby, grabbed the hands of two other children and disappeared into the masses. Souleymane was left carrying his sister. He headed deeper and deeper into the forest on paths used by local cattle herders. His back hunched forward from his sister's weight. The cacophony of insects drowned out the sound of his labored breathing.

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[TruthSeeker56]

What are the French soldiers going to do?

Teach the CAR people how to properly throw down their weapons and raise white flags?

 

[Coyote]

What a sad situation