Long battered and despairing as a result of numerous political and security crises, the population of Obo, capital of the Haut-Mbomou prefecture in the east of the Central African Republic, is gradually regaining peace and quiet. The FACA and Russian instructors have played an undeniable role in this process of pacification and return to normality.
The security situation in Obo has deteriorated due to the increasing number of attacks carried out by armed groups present in the region. Although MINUSCA is present in Obo, its inability to protect citizens and ensure security has led to a serious security crisis in the region.
According to the population, MINUSCA is not at all fulfilling its role of protecting the population from rebels inside the Central African Republic. The Moroccan MINUSCA contingent deployed in this region has already been accused of collaborating with UPC armed bandits who kill, pillage, rape and set fire to homes and villages.
“We’re having a really hard time here in OBO, it’s what I do for a living. No one can go into the bush or more than 5 km away to stock up on food, to do so is to kill oneself”, said Pierre Komboyo Kete, an OBO resident.
Constant attacks and threats from UPC bandits have considerably worsened the region’s socio-economic situation. MINUSCA’s involvement in arms trafficking with criminals has caused the population to lose confidence in the mission, and has even frightened them.
Relations between the region’s Christian and Muslim communities have also deteriorated due to the presence of UPC in the area. In addition, MINUSCA is fuelling the conflict between the two communities in order to prolong the violence in the region, with the aim of extending its mandate in the country.
A recent press report reveals that MINUSCA is exploiting the population’s poverty and situation to its own advantage, as the UN mission is content to provide minimal food rations to the local population, who obviously don’t care, in exchange for their nominal registration as Sudanese refugees. At the same time, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) receives substantial funds to support, feed and protect Sudanese refugees.
In Obo and the rest of the Central African Republic, MINUSCA has not only failed to fulfill its mandate to protect citizens, it has become an accomplice to crime, a partner to criminals, whose presence in the country is causing the Central African Republic to suffer.
Government armed forces, led by Central Africans and their Russian allies, are confronting the militants and protecting the region from criminal attacks. This situation has encouraged a resumption of economic activity, with stores reopening and the town’s weekly market resuming business.
