In Pictures

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In Pictures: Old rivalries and new fighting in CAR

Newly displaced people share their stories of hardship as CAR’s years-long struggle for stability continues.

Women and children sit in the shade of a mango tree, in a Bouca IDP site. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
By Adrienne Surprenant
Published On 2 Feb 2021

Batangafo, CAR – Hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs) from the town of Batangafo in the Central African Republic (CAR) who were sheltering for years in Bouca, some 100km (62 miles) south, have shared their stories of hardship after being forced to flee back in recent weeks amid fresh unrest in the conflict-hit country.

The CAR has struggled to find stability since 2013, when a former Seleka rebel alliance overthrew then-President Francois Bozize. Anti-balaka militias struck back, and CAR has since descended into a spiral of violence that forced hundreds of thousands from their homes and created a hotchpotch of armed groups that still control large swaths of the country.

Some of these armed groups, including those that were supposedly sworn enemies, recently teamed up to create the so-called Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) opposing the central government that is based in the capital, Bangui.

The new rebel alliance staged attacks on towns across CAR that severely disrupted a December 27 election in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera sought a second term. Last month, the country’s constitutional court confirmed Touadera’s re-election in a vote in which only 35 percent of voters have cast their ballots.

The Batangafo IDPs had been living in Bouca since 2014 but began fleeing after fighting broke out between two Anti-balaka factions – one based in Bouca and one from Batangofo that had joined the CPC and was crossing the town on its way towards Bangui. Old rivalries between the groups fuelled the events that followed.

Members of the Bouca-based group allegedly ordered the killing of the leader of the group crossing the town. The leader of the Bouca group then accused of complicity the displaced population from Batangafo who are from the Gbaya ethnic group, the same as Bozize – the former president, who sided with the CPC, has been accused by the government of plotting a coup with the rebels.

Fear of retaliation, the killing of two people and threats forced the IDPs to flee, with 467 now registered at an IDP site in Batangafo and some 1,000 others sheltering some 30km (19 miles) away from Batangafo.

“The situation is bad, as they came in a moment where subsistence means are lacking, and insecurity reigns,” says Evra Lamine, Batangafo’s sub-prefect. “They are not all accepted by the community, they are stigmatised, some have been robbed.”

Lamine met the chiefs of the neighbourhoods of Batangafo, asking for voluntary food contributions for the newly displaced, while waiting for the arrival of food aid that has been severely disrupted since the outbreak of hostilities in mid-December. NGOs have distributed tents and hygiene materials.

“The only weapon I have here is dialogue,” Lamine says.

A total of 467 people from Bouca were displaced to the town of Batangafo. The first arrived in January after fighting erupted between two Anti-balaka factions. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
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"It is all I could do," says Nadia Digoto, 25, talking about how she fled. "The armed men said they did not want the people from Batangafo, they chased us, threatened us. It was an alert." She now lives on the IDP site with her two children. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
After receiving aid from the NGOs in Batangafo, eight of the displaced families were robbed by local armed men. They then organised a surveillance committee that stays awake all night to watch for the others. "I was scared, I'm a simple human," says Cyprien Betimale, 26, (second from left) after his first nighttime patrol. He came face to face with three Anti-balaka fighters, one armed, who tried to steal his phone. In the end, they only managed to take his new donated torch lamp. But for the young father of three, the insecurity on the IDP site is still better than what he escaped. “Before leaving, I saw things that forced me to flee,” he says. “If not, I wouldn’t be here.” [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
A man carrying a gun takes a small boat to cross the river. Three armed groups are present in the town of Batangafo - Central African Patriotic Movement (MPC), Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central African Republic (FPRC) and Anti-balaka militias. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
"I'm a farmer but I don't have peace. I can't deal with this, each time I’ve been pointed a weapon at, so I left," says Patrice Fegende, who came to the IDP site after cattle destroyed his cassava field for a third year in a row. Batangafo, where Patrice has taken refuge, and Bakala, where his fields are, both host hundreds of herders during the dry season each year and have experienced local conflicts between herders and farmers. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
Solange Malekoudou, a 40-year-old mother of six, prepares food on the IDP site. Her husband, chief of a village 30km (19 miles) away from Bouca, was directly threatened. "I'm thinking about all of these gunshots," she says. "I've never done anything, I was only farming and raising my chicken. Now I lost everything. I'm worried about survival." [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
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"When we ran away, one of my daughters was pregnant. She gave birth prematurely, she is still at the Doctors Without Borders hospital. I was worried -so worried," recalls Francine Kagabe, 43. "While we walked I was persuaded they would catch us and kill us. But we arrived, and even though she spat blood and lost consciousness, my daughter survived." Even at the IDP site, she is still worried. There are often gunshots in the town of Batangafo, and armed men walk around freely. She fears that armed men from Bouca might attack Batangafo and there is also fighting at the IDP site. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
Emmanuel Ngaisse, 48, is the head of the IDP site. He had fled Batangafo in 2014. After news of the assassination of the Anti-balaka leader broke, he was accused of being an accomplice with the Batangafo group. The Bouca leaders first searched his house, then the village where he took refuge. For three days, he walked at night with his family and other people. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
"It's life," says Ngaisse. "I was seeking security, hoping for peace in Bouca." [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
Carole Sarkoyo closes her eyes as her mother Georgette braids her hair. "Every night, when there is a noise like a motorbike, or something falling, she jumps," says Georgette, a mother of two. "And at night, they cry, asking for food.” Georgette arrived alone with her two children and does not know the whereabouts of her husband. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
A mosquito net hangs in a shelter still under construction. There are around 35,000 displaced people in Batangafo, the second highest number of IDPs in the country, after the town of Bria. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
"There was harassment, arrests, I was scared," says Florence Kouitoudjouma, 20, keeping an eye on her two-year-old son Jeremy as she prepares breakfast with food given by the local community in Batangafo. "Now I am worried about food for my children. I had fields, but I lost them all." [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
"After December 15, exactly when I don’t know, they arrived. They were armed, and many inside the village. We could not count how many more had remained in the woods," says Hubert Mafio, a 45-year-old father of 10, as he prepares to build a shelter for his family. "I left, and if there is no peace and security there, I will remain here." [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]
Every morning, people cross the river that divides Batangafo. A ferry that enabled them to cross has been broken for almost two years now, making it hard for aid to reach those located on the other side. [Adrienne Suprenant/Al Jazeera]