The United Nations has warned that continued fighting in the Central African Republic C.A.R. could soon deteriorate into genocide if the peacekeeping mission there is not bolstered.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien made the remarks during a closed-door meeting with the Security Council requested by France, following his return from an official visit to the strife-torn country.
After his return from the C.A.R. earlier this month, O’Brien warned that “the early warnings of genocide are there.”
AP news agency reports the aid chief to say that he witnessed 2,000 Muslims holed up in a Catholic church in the southeastern town of Bangassou. After Christian militiamen burnt down the Muslim civilians’ houses, they were “just lying in wait to kill them if they tried to move,”
The C.A.R. has been plagued by violence since a Muslim-majority “Seleka” rebels overthrew Christian President Francois Bozize in 2013. They were subsequently ousted by a French-backed military intervention, although this was followed by deadly reprisals by the so-called “anti-balaka” Christian militants on the country’s Muslim population.
Fighting between the sectarian groups for influence and natural resources has rarely ceased since, resulting in thousands of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
Last month, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that gains made towards lasting peace, including last year’s relatively peaceful election of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, a Christian, risked being undone by rising ethnic tensions.
“The escalation is very real,” O’Brien said. “We’re looking at things which we haven’t heard about for a long time. There’s a very deep ethnic cleansing approach.”
The UN aid chief also pointed out that the number of displaced persons had increased by 40 percent from last year, up to 600,000 people in a country of 4.5 million.
