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Campaign posters of Central African Republic presidential candidates Faustin-Archange Touadéra, above, and Anicet-Georges Dologuélé are covering the streets of the capital Bangui before Sunday’s election.
Campaign posters of the two leading Central African Republic presidential candidates, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, top, and Anicet-Georges Dologuélé, are covering the streets of the capital, Bangui, before Sunday’s election. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images
Campaign posters of the two leading Central African Republic presidential candidates, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, top, and Anicet-Georges Dologuélé, are covering the streets of the capital, Bangui, before Sunday’s election. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

People of Central African Republic pray election will bring peace at last

This article is more than 8 years old

Hope is rising in Central African Republic that Sunday’s presidential runoff can unify the country, restore government control and end years of warfare

Presidential elections in the Central African Republic (CAR) long postponed due to inter-communal violence are finally to take place on 14 February amid hopes that a new government will bring stability and reconciliation to a society riven by conflict.

“This is the moment we have been waiting for. This is our chance to get out of the abyss the country finds itself in after three years of violence and conflict,” says André Gamtan, a chef de quartier (district leader) in the Boeing neighbourhood just south of the airport in the CAR’s capital, Bangui. Having been postponed a handful of times, the first round of presidential elections finally took place on 30 December 2015. A runoff between the two frontrunners, Anicet-Georges Dologuélé and Faustine-Archange Touadéra, is scheduled for Sunday.

The elections take place under pressure from the international community, led by France, looking to turn a page in the country’s three-year conflict. Election fever has finally gripped the country and in the capital, there is a sense of hope.

“The population is tired. They want peace to return,” says Gamtan. “The only solution is to let people vote,” he adds.

The country descended into chaos in late 2012, when a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels, known as the Seleka, ousted the government of president François Bozizé. Violence and human rights abuses marred the rebels’ short time in power. In late 2013 the anti-balaka, a self-defense militia made up mainly of Christians and animists fighting to protect their families, rose up against them. Thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes as both sides targeted each other and civilians.

The interim government, in power since January 2014, has struggled to extend its influence beyond the capital, and inter-communal violence has flared in Bangui and elsewhere.

“When the anti-balaka came to power, the Muslims stopped coming to the market,” says Eugénie Nganatoua, a farmer complaining about her meagre earnings since the Muslims stopped venturing outside PK5, Bangui’s last remaining Muslim enclave, fearing attack by the militia.

“We need a leader that can bring the two communities together,” she says.

Today, the anti-balaka are much less visible in Boeing. Last year the population decided they had had enough of checkpoints and road tolls and told the armed youth to leave while removing their barricades. Now the armed forces, known as the ex-Faca, patrol the community, providing at least a sense of security.

Down the road, on the other side of the landing strip at the M’poko airport is the camp where about 20,000 displaced people live in tents and makeshift shelters. Many of the families arrived here over two years ago. Fiacre Fenengai, who fled the majority Muslim neighbourhood PK5, lives in a tiny hut made of wooden poles and plastic sheeting. The former mechanic is busy unwrapping plastic dolls, which he sells at the market. In one of the poorest countries in the world, each day is a constant struggle to survive.

“The Seleka killed my wife and my daughter. My house was destroyed. I still hope to rebuild it some day when peace returns,” says Fenengai.

Football posters and family pictures are pinned to the walls of his makeshift home. Stuffed animals rest on top of the bed.

“I get by. Sometimes my sister, who is in Cameroon, sends me some money. But we cannot keep on living like this,” he says.

While the first round of elections was largely peaceful, the country remains in limbo. There is a constant fear of a return to violence. In Bangui, many hope that a maths professor – Touadéra – can solve the equation for peace.

Serving as prime minister in the government of Bozizé, Touadéra kept his teaching position at the University of Bangui, where many of his former students still remember him.

“The rebels left the country exhausted. Thousands of people were victims of their violence and many more continue to suffer. The country needs stability and development. Children need good schools, the youth needs jobs, but that is only possible if CAR is at peace,” says Touadéra.

His opponent, Dologuélé, served as a prime minister under president Ange-Félix Patassé, who came to power in 1993 during a rare period of relative peace in CAR.

“Seleka exists because for years there was no state and no army to protect the population. They need a champion of sorts to lead them out of the crisis. How will I do this? By offering jobs and education, health care and a minimum of security,” says Dologuélé.

The former minister of finance and head of the Development Bank of Central African States has a reputation for being dutiful and hard working, but has had to battle rumours of embezzlement during his time in power. Still, he has managed to make some important alliances with former opponents and heads of state. Before the December vote, Dologuélé secured the support of Kwa Na Kwa (KNK), the party of former president Bozizé, now exiled in Uganda.

“No matter who wins the elections, his ability to work together with the other candidates to form an inclusive government will be vital,” says Muslim candidate Karim Meckassoua.

The new government will inherit a deeply divided country. Anti-balaka militias hold territories in the west of the country and small pockets in Bangui, while the former Seleka rebels control the north and centre of the country. The Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal rebel movement led by the infamous Joseph Kony, controls parts of the east. To restore government control beyond the capital, the new leaders will have to disarm the militias, while reforming the national army, police and other security forces. It will have to address longstanding impunity, a challenge anywhere, but even more so in the CAR where the justice system is in ruins following years of conflict.

A shaky peace is upheld by about 11,000 UN peacekeepers and 1,000 French troops, but even their presence has become controversial with accusations of sexual abuse. The new leaders will rely heavily on the same UN forces and humanitarian organisations to improve security conditions and provide assistance to people still afraid to return home.

An estimated 450,000 people, the majority Muslim (pdf), are still refugees in neighbouring countries. Another 460,000 are displaced within the country, including some 36,000 Muslims living in enclaves.

Analysts fear that if the armed groups or parts of the population feel they have no real representation in the new government, the country could once again plunge into violence.

“While we expected the worst, for now the situation remains quiet,” says a security analyst, who asked to remain anonymous. “As long as everyone is convinced their candidate will win, they will remain calm. The real challenge for the international community and forces present in the CAR comes after the elections, when the results are announced.”

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