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Central African Republic

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Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

There is a potential cultural/territorial/religious genocide taking place in the Central African Republic (CAR). The situation is predominantly one of Muslim nomadic cattle herders versus the 80 percent Christian and Animist farmers.

The state has lost all central power with the disintegration of the Michel Djotodia’s Seleka Alliance and the fragmentation into militias and warlords.

About 400,000 people have fled their homes and villages amidst raids, murder, torture, rape, disease and starvation.

A UN Security Council draft resolution is underway with France taking a lead role. Last Tuesday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that they are raising their troop presence there from 400 to 1,400. The six month mission would be coordinated with the African Union troops. There are 2,500 regional African troops within the CAR.

To secure a population of 4.6 million Central African Republicans, going by a formula of strict minimal force requirements ratio of 3 to 1000 troops to civilian population would require the commitment of around 14,000 soldiers. Even if a peacekeeping force of 10,000 troops eventually got involved, it is hardly a realistic number. Additionally, apart from the violence, a humanitarian mission to protect over 400,000 internally displaced or refugee civilians emigrating from CAR is critical within the crisis of rising political instability.

Located in a highly unstable region of Africa, CAR is surrounded by Chad, South Sudan, the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Aside from France, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recognized the perils of CAR and this month backed the idea of a UN peacekeeping force to prevent the instability from spreading to surrounding states and attempt to quell it within CAR. Ban backed a force of 6,000 troops and 1,700 police officers and potentially another 3,000 UN troops.

By William Tucker

Ugandan soldiers operating in the Central African Republic captured a senior strategist and commander of the Lords Resistance Army. Caesar Achellam, who has been with the LRA since 1984, was captured with his wife and child after splitting off from a group of 30 rebels. Uganda has been working with both the Central African Republic and South Sudan to pressure LRA rebels to put down their weapons.

By William Tucker

In October of 2011, the U.S. deployed 100 Special Forces soldiers to Uganda for training local forces in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army. Today, AFRICOM stated that U.S. forces are now working against the LRA in Uganda, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Congo. There was no word on whether the troop level was increased to facilitate this expansion of operations, however.