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On the streets of the Central African capital, Bangui, where the Portuguese army is stationed in the country, there is panic in the streets, as the first round of the presidential elections on December 27 approaches. The stars are deserted, the shops are closed and the population is hiding in their houses, with blue helmets placed to defend government offices, according to Reuters.
A few days ago MINUSCA, the UN mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has a Rapid Reaction Force of 180 Portuguese soldiers, repelled an offensive directed at the capital, but much of the country remains in the hands of rebels. .
The Portuguese, who usually have some of the most complicated missions in their hands, were at the center of the tumult, in Bossembélé, defending a road that is one of the main access points for people and supplies to Bangui, the newspaper reported on Monday i. There were shootings with armed groups, but “they were resolved quickly without casualties or difficulties by the Portuguese contingent,” said the Minister of National Defense, João Gomes Cravinho.
“It was very foreseeable that at a moment immediately before the first round of the presidential elections, on December 27, there would be an increase in tension and, eventually, some conflict,” the minister explained. The Portuguese forces, “naturally, were ready.”
Meanwhile, 300 Rwandan soldiers arrived in the Central African Republic, and various international media speak in the presence of hundreds of troops and heavy weapons from Russia; A few years ago, the Kremlin signed a bilateral military agreement with Bangui, in exchange for access to mineral resources.
The support could not have come at a better time. The rebels already seized the country’s fourth largest city, Bambari, on Friday, AFP said. They looted squads, barracks and houses, in addition to preventing the passage of a UN caravan bound for the capital.
A broken country
After all, what is happening in the Central African Republic, a country so rich in diamonds, gold and other natural resources, sparsely populated, that it seems incapable of preventing seizures? The roots of the current conflict date back to 2013, when a group of Muslim militias, the Seleka, overthrew then-President Francois Bozize, a Christian known for his authoritarian rule.
Amid the chaos of the civil war, Christian militias, the so-called anti-balaka, emerged with massacres of Christian and Muslim populations, adding ethnic tensions to the mix. After a fragile peace agreement and the arrival of international troops, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, a former prime minister at the time of Bozize, was elected president, but the country never came off the tightrope.
Today, the geometry of these powerful militias seems even more complicated. Central African officials accuse Bozize, who has been banned from running for president because he has pending charges of torture and murder, of joining a rebel coalition in Bossembélé, which includes Seleka and anti-Balaka groups.
«We are afraid of the elections. We want peace, we want security, ”Ismail Dicky, a 20-year-old Bangassou resident, appealed to Reuters. His city suffered one of the worst ethnic massacres of the conflict, in an anti-Balaka offensive in 2017, which killed at least 140 civilians, mainly Muslims, while the peacekeepers tried to retake the town.
“Going to vote is our duty, it is our right. But the trauma of the conflict is still there. Sometimes I still have nightmares, ”Daouda, a mother living in Bangassou, explained to RFI. It didn’t help that the elections brought the antibalaka back to their neighborhood, this time for the presidential campaign of one of their leaders, Yvon Nzelete; meanwhile, his candidacy was invalidated by justice. “Yes, sometimes I saw them riding motorcycles,” Daoda said. “It was frightening”.
