Archbishop of Bangui: CAR urgently needs UN peacekeeping force
Catholic and Muslim leaders in the Central African Republic warn that the nation is
on the brink of a full-scale sectarian war and urgently needs a UN peacekeeping force.
The appeal came from Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui and Imam
Oumar Kobine Layama, the President of the country’s Islamic community.
The
former French colony plunged into armed conflict, after a largely Muslim rebel group
known as Seleka ousted President Francois Bozizé last March.
As the fighting
continues, more than two million people, close to half of the population, are in desperate
need of aid. Hundreds have died in the violence and more than 400 thousand people
have been displaced.
Listen to the following report by Susy Hodges:
In an interview
with Vatican Radio, the head of the Catholic Church in the Central African Republic
(CAR), Archbishop Nzapalainga said his nation needs more peacekeeping troops to try
to halt the “violence, barbaric acts and killings” which are tearing the country apart.
He describes how the nation is locked into a vicious cycle of revenge killings and
hatred and says “the darkness is all around us.” The archbishop, along with the
most senior Imam and Protestant leaders, tried to head off the sectarian tensions
between Christians and Muslims which they could see brewing across their homeland.
When the killing began, Archbishop Nzapalainga opened his church to hundreds
of Christian families fleeing the Muslim militias hunting them. But, in a more unusual
step, he also provided refugee to a friend and partner, the most senior Muslim cleric
in the CAR, Imam Oumar Layama, who was under threat himself from vengeful Christians.
Archbishop Nzapalainga told us that Imam Layama is still being sheltered at the
Archbishopric.
Asked about the situation outside the capital Bangui, Archbishop
Nzapalainga said he was in regular touch with the regional bishops and said the situation
in the rest of the country was a source of "great concern" to them. He spoke of many
villages in the countryside being attacked and set on fire by armed groups, with the
population fleeing in terror to the bush to hide there.