Central African Republic religious leaders say conflict is not about religion, as thousands killed

Reports that Christian militia in the Central African Republic are targeting Muslims as they attempt to flee the ongoing conflict in the country are emerging, but religious leaders say the media has got it wrong.

Last week, Newsweek and BBC reported what journalist Tim Whewell describes as a “massive scale ethnic cleansing”, with the Christian anti-balaka militia now in a violent backlash the tide on the conflict which last year saw Muslim rebels attacking Christians.

Religious leaders from Central African Republic met with the UN Secretary General this month to plead for more assistance.

Religious leaders from Central African Republic met with the UN Secretary General this month to plead for more assistance.

However, the World Evangelical Alliance, a network of churches from 129 nations says the conflict is not religiously motivated, accusing the world’s media of fuelling religious tensions by incorrectly interpreting the root of the crisis in the Central African Republic as a religious conflict between Christians and Muslims.

A timid stability in the Central African Republic was destroyed last year when the Seleka rebel alliance staged a coup, ousting President Francois Bozize. The Seleka are reported as “mostly Muslim”, while a resistance group known as the anti-balaka (meaning ‘anti machete’) are labeled in the media as Christian. Al-Jazeera reports the anti-balaka are essentially a “catch-all for local vigilantes with bows and arrows … they include former soldiers and supporters of ousted President Francois Bozize.” The Central African Republic is a majority-Christian country.

The World Evangelical Alliance disagrees with the labelling of militia groups as ‘Muslim’ or ‘Christian’.

“We do not accept the amalgam of labelling of anti-Balaka as “Christian” militia. Indeed the anti-Balaka are the expression of exasperation, with the ongoing atrocities, from a part of the population – mainly young men – that witnessed multiple abuses by Seleka rebels. However, we reiterate that all anti-Balaka are not Christians and all Christians are not anti-Balaka. It is the same for ex-Seleka and Muslims. Incorrect terminology that labels anti-Balaka “Christian militias” must be corrected. This amalgam propagated by national and international media has given a religious connotation to a crisis that is in its core political and military.” 

Three of Central African Republic’s top religious leaders travelled to the United Nations in New York earlier this month to urge the Security Council to act quickly on its recommendations for a UN peacekeeping operation.

The Catholic Archbishop of Bangui, the leader of the Protestant churches, and the Imam of Bangui met UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon, who said “We want to pass on an essential message: that the conflict in the Central African Republic is not about religion.”

Ban described the leaders and their joint ‘platform for peace’ initiative, as a “powerful symbol of their country’s long-standing tradition of peaceful co-existence.”

“Let me be clear,” said the Secretary-General: “the conflict in the Central African Republic is not about religion,” insisting that “religious and ethnic affiliations are being manipulated for political purposes.”

While the leaders say the “refuse to be enemies”, there are many examples of Muslims and Christians working together and protecting each other. The Christian Science Monitor has put together a slideshow of such examples, while BBC (in the same report headlined as “massive ethnic cleansing”), also reports a Christian pastor sheltering displaced Muslims in his church building, in an attempt to protect them from militia.

“Though this is apparently a Muslim-Christian conflict, the fugitives real saviour is a priest,” reports Tim Whewall from CAR.

The conflict in Central African Republic has killed thousands and displaced over a million people. Over half the population (2.2 million) is believed to be in need of humanitarian assistance, says the United Nations. In December last year, the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of peacekeeping forces in CAR. But the violence is reportedly increasing.

“The inter-communal hatred remains at a terrifying level, as evidenced by the extraordinarily vicious nature of the killings. This has become a country where people are not just killed, they are tortured, mutilated, burned and dismembered,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillary in CAR’s capital, Bangui this month.