No one seems capable of ending the spiral of sectarian revenge and ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic, warns Michaël Zumstein, a Franco-Swiss photojournalist who has been covering the crisis there since March 2013.
At least 2,000 people have been killed and one million – a quarter of the population – displaced by fighting since the mostly Muslim Séléka rebel group seized power in March last year in the majority Christian country.
The situation has stabilised somewhat since rebel-turned-president Michel Djotodia surrendered power in January amid mounting international condemnation of his inability to stop bloodshed. A new interim civilian government has pledged to halt the violence and attempt to organise elections by February 2015. But sectarian tensions remain high.
swissinfo.ch: The United Nations has warned that the bloodshed could turn into genocide if the international community doesn’t act to stop killings between Christians and Muslims. What are your thoughts?
Michaël Zumstein: The word ‘genocide’ is obviously one you have to use carefully, as it generally refers to a centralised action with the aim of exterminating a population. A genocide is not far off, but right now there is ethnic cleansing, chasing people away through terror.
It’s not centralised like you saw in Rwanda with lists or people who deliberately wait by the roadside to kill, but here the Christian community suffered massively when the Séléka came to power. They were oppressed and today they are taking revenge on a huge scale as the Muslim population cannot be protected.
The minority Muslim community feels terribly threatened by the acts of revenge by the Christian community and the anti-balakas (lawless bands of Christian militiamen). They group together as they are scared and try to protect themselves in particular with weapons.
The terrible cycle continues as the Christians see that and themselves become scared saying ‘we need to get weapons too as they might attack us’. Each one watches the other, becomes suspicious and takes revenge for past acts.
When the French force arrived and saw the armed Muslims often protected by the Sélékas, they disarmed them and left them often defenceless to the Christian groups and anti-balakas. People have fled everywhere.
There is an urgent humanitarian drama but apart from the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières, who are doing a remarkable job, international organisations and NGOs are absent.
swissinfo.ch: There have been reports of particularly gruesome acts of vengeance, even cannibalism in the capital, Bangui. How do you explain such extreme violence?
M.Z.: It’s an unbelievable violence that is difficult to analyse. But you have to understand the wider context: a state that has been adrift for 50 years with an incompetent, corrupt and violent political elite. It’s their fifth or sixth coup d’état since independence.
The country has lost its institutions: police, army and all the barriers of a normal organised society. There is no one to prevent this hatred from the past few months. This leads to ignoble acts of revenge carried out to impress others. Women and children are attacked to terrorise enemies.
swissinfo.ch: Catherine Samba-Panza was sworn in last month as interim president. What are her chances of ending the crisis?
M.Z.: I think she is a very interesting, willing and competent person at the head of the country – and a woman too, so she represents a very conciliatory figure. But her room for action is much reduced. She will appoint a new government but her capacity to secure the country obviously depends on foreign forces.
swissinfo.ch: France has sent 1,600 troops to bolster some 4,600 African peacekeepers. At the end of January, European Union foreign ministers approved the deployment of a 500-strong joint military force. How effective have they been and will this be enough?
M.Z.: Initially the French were well received by both the Christian and Muslim communities. But very quickly those carrying weapons – mostly the Séléka – were arrested and disarmed, often quite violently. But the French didn’t quite realise that in doing so they were exposing the Muslim community to reprisals as they couldn’t be protected. So Muslims started to become more hostile towards them.
Recently we realised that some people from the Christian community were also questioning the French. They have started to ask why the violence has not stopped or why Muslims are getting armed. They accuse the French of doing nothing.
For a long time the African-led International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) was not very visible as they didn’t have the resources – communication or transport – and were not sufficient numbers. Today we are paying the price for the lack of resources. They don’t seem to manage to deploy outside Bangui so the rest of the country is left in anarchy to the armed groups.
They need to quadruple the number of foreign forces to 15,000-20,000 to definitely stop the violence and acts of revenge and to secure the roads so people can either leave the country or resettle elsewhere.
What we sense now is that France is getting prepared. It will let the African Union and Central Africans try to sort this out on their own. But in the next few weeks, if this level of ethnic cleansing continues, I wouldn’t be surprised to see France intervene in a much more significant way.
swissinfo.ch: How easy has it been to work as a photographer in such chaos?
M.Z.: It’s very paradoxical as it’s one of the countries where it has been easiest to work. It was very easy to move from one community to another and from one camp or neighbourhood to another. People let us work as they wanted us to witness their suffering.
But I have never seen such hatred or violence. It’s very surprising; I was able to work easily but at the same time it was one horror after another – scenes of lynching and pillaging.
Now it’s more difficult. We start to get threatened more violently by the communities who are suffering and who don’t see their situation improving.