• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Waugh Zone

The website of Louisa Waugh

  • Home
  • Waugh Stories
  • Books
    • Meet Me in Gaza
    • Hearing Birds Fly
    • Selling Olga
  • Ideas
  • Waugh on Peace
  • About
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

The Republic of Peace Keepers

I am back in Bangui; to be honest I’ve been back here for a couple of months, but simply haven’t been able to find the time to write. It’s because I’ve got a job. Yes! I am finally working for an NGO, so I get up early and get myself ready and go off to the office to write and email and liaise and network and do all those other NGO things that NGO workers do.

Personally I’m delighted to be back in Bangui, and working; I like my London-based NGO employer and the projects they ‘do’ – but want to try and keep that famous work-life balance, so  I’m just writing personal reflections; or as aid workers say, ‘Opinions are all my own.’ The thing about my job is that I’m on solo deployment; so when people ask, as they do, about who is my security/logistics/ finance/ officer I just smile. And tell them its all me.

I arrived as the only member of my team – which I guess also means I am my own line-manager boss  (it’s worth a try!). I’ve just recruited an assistant and a driver, and have found a small office in a compound with trees and flowers, and a hammock. Plus, I’ve found a lovely old colonial house to live in with a large terrace and palm trees in the back garden. It ain’t a bad start to NGO-ing.

But I digress. Bangui is bruised. This week the Capital was again engulfed with violence, after a bloody shooting and grenade attack on a Catholic church by a group of Muslims that killed at least 17 people. Within hours of the attack the local population of Banguiois erupted, erecting barricades they then set on fire across main roads, as crowds stormed the streets in protests that turned violent. African Union peace keepers (also known as MISCA) fought anti-Balaka militias in vicious street battles near the scarred church.

For two days and nights most of us stayed in inside and as far away from the heavy shooting as possible. It was frightening and very very tense. President Catherine Samba-Panza condemned the attack as violent manipulative politics, and her speech somehow slaked the communal outpouring of rage. For now. Because this latest ‘incident’ above anything else, highlights how chronic fear turns in on itself with impunity.

Lets be clear; this is not a religious war, and never has been. The hideous attack on the church – and equally hideous reprisal on a Bangui Mosque the following day – were both symbolic acts aimed at the perpetrators achilles heel, crowded, popular, sacred communal places where the impact would be hardest felt. I’ve spoken to anti-Balaka commanders like Maxim Mocom, and asked him directly if this conflict was religious. He fixed me a hard stare. ‘This has nothing to do with religion’ he replied. ‘We have liberated our country from Seleka, we are the national resistance.’

For the anti-Balaka, their job is now done, and they are looking for an triumphant exit, whilst also demanding the transition Government listen to them and understand their rationale for taking up arms against the Seleka regime.

Ten days ago the CAR government launched its new National Plan of Social Cohesion and Reconciliation, finally acknowledging that it needs to reach out to armed groups and include them in a national process of dialogue and reconciliation. The problem is the government has virtually no resources to carry out this vital and ambitious programme.

Meanwhile, the biggest international response to the chronic crisis here in CAR has been promises of (as yet much undelivered) humanitarian funds, and the focus on September’s arrival of more peace keepers, this time from the UN who are deploying some 10,000 ‘Blue helmets’ that will also absorb many of the current MISCA peace keepers. The French military  (under operation SANGARIS) apparently can’t wait for the UN mission to begin soon enough, as they can then beat a hasty retreat.

As brilliantly argued by this very recent Open Democracy article, peace keepers can be a tool for a national peace building strategy here in CAR, but  cannot be the strategy. The new MINUSCA UN Mission will be the eighth peace keeping mission in the Central African Republic since 1997. This dismal role reveals what a disaster the other missions have been, and how lessons have not been learnt, especially vis a vis dialogue with non-state actors like the anti-Balaka, and Seleka – who are now back on the rise, re-galvanised and have installed themselves in the north central city of Bambari where they fight running battles with the French and pit Muslims against Christians for their own political ends.

Where is the ‘clear and coherent vision’ developed by the UN alongside Central African strategists and the amorphous ‘International community’ to propel CAR into a future, not a peace keeping freefall?

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 1, 2014 1 Comment

Filed Under: Waugh Stories

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ami

    August 7, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    just checking in on you. I often do, stay safe.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Keep in touch

Sign up to receive the occasional update about my latest adventures! I won't sell your email or send you spam, promise.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

More Waugh Stories

Embracing Ukraine mural, Brighton

Mirror mirror on the wall – where the fukarwee…..?

My mum has these funky friends across the pond in Canada who like kayaking. One day they set off …

Continue Reading about Mirror mirror on the wall – where the fukarwee…..?

waughlouisa Louisa B 🌍🌴🔥 @waughlouisa ·
13 Mar

Please support my fundaiser for Ukrainian refugees stranded in Calais https://care4calais.enthuse.com/pf/louisa-waugh-c7434

Reply on Twitter 1503005280719851527 Retweet on Twitter 1503005280719851527 Like on Twitter 1503005280719851527 Twitter 1503005280719851527
waughlouisa Louisa B 🌍🌴🔥 @waughlouisa ·
27 Aug

It takes a man:
"I demand accountability" US Marine commander Stuart Scheller calls out US leaders incompetence
https://insiderpaper.com/marine-commander-stuart-scheller-relieved-duty-viral-video/

Reply on Twitter 1431389155775365120 Retweet on Twitter 1431389155775365120 Like on Twitter 1431389155775365120 2 Twitter 1431389155775365120
waughlouisa Louisa B 🌍🌴🔥 @waughlouisa ·
9 Aug

#Boden-uk - please do something about your terrible customer service. I have been asking to change my faulty coffee grinder for weeks: no help from your agents at all, I am dismayed.
#RightsCustomers #CustomerSatisfaction

Reply on Twitter 1424730312228081666 Retweet on Twitter 1424730312228081666 Like on Twitter 1424730312228081666 Twitter 1424730312228081666
Load More...

Discover more

Support Samos Volunteers


samos volunteers logo

We all know this long-term crisis demands a long-term political strategy, instead of EU member states abandoning refugees, and Greek communities, to fend for themselves. In the meantime, self-organised groups like SV are on the ground seven days a week, working alongside refugees on Samos, to make life in the camp more bearable.

HELP NOW

Footer

Copyright © 2022 Louisa Waugh · Design by Form & Function built on WordPress · Log in