Hole in the heart of Africa

The Security Council has approved my proposal to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic – opening the way for 10,000 troops and almost 2,000 police to bring a semblance of order to a nation in ruins.

I have just returned from a visit to the country to see the situation first-hand. Desperate is an understatement.

More than half the population of the Texas-sized country need life-saving assistance. One out of four Central Africans has been uprooted from their homes. At makeshift camps I visited at the airport outside the capital city of Bangui, as many as 500 people share one toilet. Conditions will only get worse with the onset of the rainy season.

“Who would accept to live here?” one woman cried out to me. “But we are risking our lives to live where we lived.”

The majority of the country’s Muslim community has fled the country, escaping a brutal wave of sectarian strife that has claimed innocents on all sides. Atrocity crimes continue. The justice system has crumbled. Ethno-religious cleansing is a reality. Whole communities have been dismantled.

Despite the many deprivations, the commodity that the Central African Republic lacks most is time. The peacekeeping mission will take at least six months to get up and running. Meanwhile the country’s people are caught in a daily struggle for survival.

I travelled to the CAR on my way to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide. In Rwanda, I expressed my profound sadness for the international community’s inaction during that country’s hour of need.

But what of crises on our watch?

Will the international community act now instead of apologizing in 20 years for not doing what was needed when we had the chance? Will national leaders heed the lessons of the past and prevent another Rwanda in our time?

In the centre of one of Bangui’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, we drove past block after block of the concrete carcasses of shops and homes. We passed a sea of trucks filled far beyond capacity with pots, pans, water jugs, the last possessions of a population on the run.

Women and men shared harrowing tales of sexual violence, kidnapping and constant threats on their lives. Now they are virtual prisoners desperate only for escape. They told me how schools, hospitals, even cemeteries are off-limits. As one person lamented, “We can’t even help our dead.”

Now is the time to help the living. That requires fast-track action on three fronts.