Violence in the Central African
Republic is getting worse as ”transitional President Catherine Samba-Panza was in New York at
the U.N. General Assembly.” Over the past few days at least 42 people have been
killed, and on Monday over 500 prisoners had escaped from jail. The unrest
is “sparked by the death of a Muslim man
whose body was left near a mosque.” Then over the weekend Muslim militants
retaliated and killed several people in a Christian neighborhood.
U.S. officials have condemned the unrest and have pledged
their full support to Samba-Panza and her government. U.S. State Department spokesman
John Kirby said in a statement, "We fully support the efforts of the
Central African and international forces to re-establish order and bring these
perpetrators to justice." “The era during which such individuals have been
able to carry out their malevolent actions with impunity must come to an
end."
The religious and ethnic unrest has been going on since 2013
when “Muslim Séléka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country.”
Over the past two years the rebels have divided a nation, and continuous
violence has killed thousands of people. There is an election scheduled to
replace the interim president on October 18th but many experts don’t
see the election actually happening on time as the violence continues. The Pope
is also scheduled to visit in November as he tours Africa. It will be interesting
to see if he follows through with his visit if there is still uncontrollable violence in the country.
It will also be interesting to see if once a new president is elected, if they
can bring this unrest to a stop and lessen the divide between the two
religions.
Ashley Rot
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