The Central African Republic is one of the most insecure and underreported countries
in the world.
In the mostly lawless north, entire villages are destroyed and emptied out in recurrent
fighting.
Bullet holes pockmark new constructions.
Rebels from different groups stage attacks on main roads, making any drive perilous.
So-called Zaraguinas, former fighters for rebel turned President Francois Bozize, intercept
vehicles carrying goods and kidnap pedestrians for ransom, making it unsafe for farmers to
go to their fields.
Mothers stagger to feeding centers in main cities to give their malnourished newborns
a chance to stay alive.
Displaced people gather for free seeds and food supplies.
In the village of Kana, men are trying to protect themselves with hunting riffles and
magic amulets.
Every man in this village is part of a so-called self-defense group.
The militia members have set up a barricade on both ends of Kana, on the main dirt road
between the capital Bangui and the north.
They go on patrol, trying to make the road leading to their fields safe again.
They use a style that is all their own.
The village chief shows where he says Zaraguinas recently set up camp.
He says the Zaraguinas stayed in the nearby bush for several days, before the self-defense
group decided to confront them. Villagers say they killed three of the bandits and chased
the rest away.
People in Kana say they are hoping that with the self-defense group on guard now, attacks
will diminish.
The effect of road banditry is dramatic, according to Toby Lanzer, who was recently the United
Nations humanitarian coordinator in the C.A.R.
"The impact has been devastating. It's displaced perhaps 100-thousand people. It has cut off
communities from their trading routes. It has sent many, many people into neighboring
countries. It's a phenomenon we are taking extremely seriously but it's difficult to
deal with in the sense that ... with whom does one talk? Whom should I contact? It isn't
as though there is a well identified militant opposition group that makes public statements
or has a public platform that in a way enables us to engage. We are very far from that and
the phenomenon of banditry in this country has had a devastating effect on certain areas
of the country."
The military commander for northern C.A.R. refused to be interviewed for this report
or to have his soldiers filmed. He called the self-defense groups, good boys.
The highest authority in the northwestern region that encompasses Kana, Gabriel Baipo,
shows some of the other badly affected areas.
An attack near the border with Chad in November 2008 left a dozen soldiers dead.
"It's unfortunate these attacks are becoming more frequent. But we are trying to do everything
we can That is why we have helped create this system of self-defense to defend villages
and other places. It's an initiative which has the backing of the government. We even
register the different groups The number of soldiers we have cannot cover the entire region.
That's why the government has decided that in each sub-region, town and village, there
should be a system of auto-defense to defend their goods.
They do this in good standing.
If they need certain products, we can help them. We can give them some funding, so they
can be comfortable, and so they can buy coffee, milk and other things."
The day before this interview the Kana self-defense group was given ammunition.
It seems the layer of armed groups is getting as thick as the dense vegetation.
Villagers, like Jean-Bertrand, a 24-year old who used to be a student in the capital, but
came back to protect his family, have few good things to say about the military.
"When soldiers supposedly come to help out with security in the village, it creates more
problems. They are supposed to do a good job and protect us.
But the military never performs
this good role. Instead they come to loot. When we tell them to come to solve a problem,
they will add to the problem with looting. They will ask the village chief for animals.
They harass Muslim shopkeepers, and they don't do their work. You realize they are part of
the problem as well. If the people of the village ensure their own security, it's much
better that way."
Robert Souleymane is one man hoping he could have gotten some protection when the main
northwestern city of Bossangoa was overrun by mercenaries several years ago
He shows the house where he says he was taken and gang raped by a group of female Congolese
fighters, and infected with HIV.
"I was caught right there by Congolese women. They were wearing fatigues and carrying weapons.
They raped me in my house, here, by force. That's how I got the problem (of HIV). My
wife was gone to Chad at the time, and I didn't know (I was infected). When she came back,
we got back together and now, she is contaminated as well."
Lanzer says the problem of rape remains as prevalent today. He recently tried to defuse
a pattern of rape around the northern town of Kaga Bandoro.
"Along a stretch of road of about 50 kilometers, where the situation was particularly bad,
we essentially started going up and down the road and talking with everybody that we could
find who had a weapon, who could force himself or herself, onto somebody else, simply by
the power of the gun. It was serious. We were approaching in some communities levels of
gender-based violence which are often associated with acute situations such as that in Darfur."
The northern town of Birao,on the border with Darfur, was itself torn by conflict last year.
Soldiers were accused of attacking certain ethnically-dominated neighborhoods after rebels
had taken over for one month but then retreated.
The rebels were finally pushed out with the help of French forces, now acting under the
banner of EUFOR, a European Union peacekeeping mission trying to secure areas where Darfurian
refugees are living. Commander Thomas Guerin explains his mission.
"My mission in Birao is to carry out a safe and secure environment mission. We have to
present a deterrent force in the area, patrolling daily in the whole area of responsibility
of the detachment."
But on this day a few kilometers away from their base, as soon as rain started to fall,
the French security mission decided it was time to suspend their patrol so they headed
back to base.
In November 2008, not far from Birao, the town of Sam Ouandja, which usually shelters
several thousand Darfurians, was emptied out during a rebel attack, despite the nearby
French presence.
Human rights activists also accuse the self-defense groups of committing atrocities.
In the Central African Republic, it seems citizens are left to fend for themselves,
and that they have to deal with more armed groups, rather than fewer.