‘Echoes of Rwanda’ as CAR waits for UN

A Catholic leader in Central African Republic (CAR) says the decision to establish a robust UN peacekeeping operation is a “welcome step” towards peace in the country, but that the world needs to act immediately, writes Ellen Teague. Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui warned that CAR ­cannot afford the proposed six-month wait for 12,000 UN peacekeepers to arrive.

“When I speak to ordinary people, I hear voices of fear, desperately asking for the world’s help, and they cannot be told to wait,” said the archbishop, who is president of Cafod’s partner Caritas Central African Republic and active in a national interfaith platform alongside senior Christian and Muslim leaders.

“Ours is a crisis that has daily echoes of Rwanda 20 years ago,” he commented, “as we receive reports of people killed with knives and machetes in our streets simply because of the group to which they belong.” He felt the main difference between Rwanda in 1994, when more than 800,000 people were slaughtered, and today in CAR “is that we still have time to act to help save lives”.

Archbishop Nzapalainga spoke after the UN Security Council approved deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission. Thousands have been killed since December, in violence triggered by the Muslim Seleka rebels.