Related: Do You Care About the Coup in the CAR?
France does:
"Attacks rise in former French colony; Central African Republic called near genocide" by Florence Richard and Krista Larson | Associated Press, December 01, 2013
BOUCA, Central African Republic — About a dozen Muslim armed fighters rolled up to the Catholic mission in their pickup truck and delivered an ominous message to the hundreds seeking refuge on church grounds: Leave the premises by morning or face death.
Ismael Hadjaro, a self-proclaimed colonel in a rebel movement that overthrew Central African Republic’s president earlier this year, accused the mission and its staff of harboring armed Christian combatants.
‘‘If you are not gone by 8 o’clock tomorrow morning we will come back and shoot you and burn down the mission,’’ he told the nun running the mission, according to a witness. ‘‘You’re making this a religious war.’’
Now jwho would want to do that?
Frantic phone calls followed and soon soldiers from a regional peacekeeping mission showed up to guard the Catholic mission, where church officials and aid workers insist they are merely trying to protect civilians. Most of the people sheltered there are women and children, according to Lewis Mudge, a researcher with the Africa division of Human Rights Watch who witnessed the colonel’s threat in Bouca last week.
France’s foreign minister has warned that its former colony in central Africa is ‘‘on the verge of genocide’’ as attacks mount across the country’s remote northwest between the mostly Muslim fighters from Seleka, who ousted the president in March, and Christian militias that have emerged to defend towns and in some cases attack Muslim civilian communities.
To try to avert further violence France has pledged to send 1,000 troops to Central African Republic to help boost security before an African Union-led peacekeeping mission is fully up and running.
So the French are to become even more deeply immersed in Africa.
See: France adds troops in Central African Republic
I'm sure that will just make the French hate the presidency of Hollande even more.
A French official said Saturday that France will host an informal meeting on the crisis in Central African Republic next week in Paris.
Leaders of countries including Gabon, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, and Chad are to take part, along with Central African Republic’s prime minister and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
A French official who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said the daylong session will come at the end of a broader summit involving some 40 African leaders Dec. 6-7.
France’s foreign minister has warned its former colony is ‘‘on the verge of genocide’’ as attacks mount between mostly Muslim fighters and Christian militias.
We saw it the first time.
The situation in Bouca has been particularly dire since early September, and clashes in late November prompted the threat against the Catholic mission. Forty-three bodies have been buried in recent weeks in Bouca, about 180 miles north of Bangui, the capital, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Hundreds of homes in Bouca have been burned to the ground and those who haven’t fled to the Catholic mission have taken shelter in the fields outside town.
The area around Bouca is home to a growing Christian militia movement known as the anti-balaka. The fighters — armed in some cases only with artisanal hunting rifles — rose up earlier this year in opposition to the wave of attacks by Seleka rebels.
The rhetoric has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone in a town where Christians and Muslims had lived together in relative peace for generations.
And JWHO benefits from Christians and Muslims at each others throats, huh?
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"Dozens dead in Central African Republic clashes" Associated Press, September 10, 2013
BANGUI, Central African Republic — Clashes in Central African Republic involving fighters believed to be loyal to ousted President Francois Bozize killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands over the weekend, officials said Monday.
The fighting occurred in the west of the country, a region that in recent months has been the site of multiple massacres allegedly carried out by the Seleka coalition of fighters who toppled Bozize in March. Seleka leader Michel Djotodia was sworn in as president last month and vowed to return the country to democracy by organizing elections within 18 months.
Guy Simplice Kodegue, a presidential spokesman, said 60 people had been killed in the latest fighting, which he said had been initiated by pro-Bozize fighters.
He said a column of army soldiers supported by Seleka fighters had been dispatched to the region from Bangui, the capital, to stop the assailants.
Seleka is made up primarily of fighters from the country’s predominantly Muslim north, and some observers have said the group only targets Christian villages.
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What brought the French in was the alleged killing of reporters by Al-CIA-Duh:
"2 French reporters abducted and slain
DAKAR — Two French journalists were kidnapped and killed in northern Mali on Saturday, the French foreign ministry said, underscoring the continuing instability of a region retaken from fighters linked to Al Qaeda only eight months ago. The reporters, Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, worked for Radio France Internationale, a French state-supported broadcaster (New York Times)."
Are you sure they were reporters, NYT?
"Few clues in deaths of French newsmen in Mali" Associated Press, November 04, 2013
PARIS — Two veteran French journalists kidnapped and killed in northern Mali were shot to death, French authorities said Sunday, as questions emerged about how the gunmen managed to carry out the attack near a town where both French troops and UN forces were based.
Questions that go away when you consider that Islamic insurgency is code for covert western intelligence operations.
The slayings of Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, shocked France and underscored how insecure parts of northern Mali remain months after a French-led military intervention against Al Qaeda and other extremists.
Related: France declares victory over extremists in Mali
When you have been lied to for so long what's one more?
The new details, shared by the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, after a meeting of key ministers with President Francois Hollande, failed to clarify who was behind the killings and why the pair was targeted....
The northern town Kidal is under de facto rebel control despite the presence of French and UN troops.
French troops, alerted to the kidnappings, set up checkpoints, sent out patrols, and called in helicopters to search, but a patrol arrived too late....
This is starting to stink of a staged and scripted event.
Suspicion as to who was behind the killings grew as bits of information trickled out. Both Tuareg separatists of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, known as the NMLA, and Al Qaeda-linked fighters operate in the area....
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Related: Al Qaeda takes responsibility for reporters’ death
Maybe they were just angry about the scarf ruling, birth control, or French music.
Man charged with killing US official
Suspect in US envoy killing arrested in Mali
Also see: Millions in UK aid to Central African Republic
I'm sure that will go over as well with the austerity-strapped Brits as it did with the French.
