Rebels in the Central African Republic are calling for
the establishment of a new country as a radical
solution to the worsening sectarian conflict.
The name – the Republic of Northern Central Africa
– and a design for a national flag, are circulating by
mobile phone in the dusty town of Bambari, which
divides the C.A.R's largely Christian south from a
northern region now controlled by the mostly
Muslim Seleka rebels, according to Reuters.
But the United Nations, the African Union, the former
colonial power, France, and many analysts insist
that this is neither likely nor desirable.
The call for partition echoes numerous secessionist
movements across Africa, where arbitrary borders
drawn by colonial mapmakers disregarded and cut across ethnic boundaries .
South Sudan, the C.A.R's neighbour, gained
independence from Sudan in 2011 – but is now
embroiled in a civil war of its own.
Bambari has become a sanctuary for Muslims
fleeing lynch mobs in the south; a convoy of French peacekeepers escorted 100 Muslims there last
Monday from the capital, Bangui.
Such evacuations, which are continuing, are
tantamount to accepting partition, the minister for
reconciliation and communications, Antoinette
Montaigne has conceded.
Abdel Nasser Mahamat Youssouf, member of a
youth group in Bambari lobbying for the secession
of the north, was quoted as saying: "The partition
itself has already been done.
Now there only
remains the declaration of independence." A colleague, Oumar Tidiane, said of the south:
"They don't want any Muslims. Rather than calling
their country the Central African Republic, they can
call it the Central African Catholic Republic."
Militias known as the "anti-balaka" have driven tens of thousands of Muslims from the south , destroying mosques and virtually wiping out the
Muslim population of Bangui.
The UN high
commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, has
said the country faces "massive ethnic-religious cleansing", while Amnesty International has warned of a "Muslim exodus of historic
proportions".
But there is no simple split. Before the crisis it was
estimated that half the C.A.R's population was
Christian and just 15% Muslim. David Smith, a
director of Okapi Consulting, who spent several years in the country, said: "The number of Muslims
in the CAR was small and now it is dramatically
smaller.
The number calling for secession is so small
that it's hardly worth listening to them.
"There are some people who want to compare it
with Sudan and South Sudan but that is completely
off the mark. "There are lot of independence movements all over
this continent and most have more steam behind
them than a group of young men in the C.A.R.
It's
coming predominantly from Chadians and
Sudanese who want to have free rein in the
region," he added. Indeed, an independent north would play into the
hands of neighbouring Chad and Sudan, whose
mercenaries played a major part in a coup in March
last year, sparking a backlash along religious lines
that forced the Seleka to cede power in January.
This is just one reason why partition is implacably opposed by the C.A.R's interim president, Catherine Samba-Panza. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki- Moon, has also warned of its dangers and the
French president, François Hollande, has vowed to prevent it.
It is also unlikely to win much sympathy in the rest of Africa, where governments are resisting separatist movements everywhere from Angola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from Nigeria to Kenya, from
Somalia to Zimbabwe.
At independence half a century ago, the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) declared the borders immutable
to prevent wars erupting.
It made a special case for South Sudan but is hardly like to do the same for the C
A.R. Koffi Kouakou, a foreign-policy expert at Wits University in Johannesburg, said: "The partition of the C.A.R is not
likely to happen and is not desirable at political and economic levels.
"The social evidence on the ground shows that while the strife of ethnic cleansing is increasingly becoming a grave concern in many parts of Africa, mainly in central Africa, the partition of the C.A.R is a
mirage at this stage.
"The international community will not allow it as a matter of course. A divided CAR is not feasible on international jurisdiction and on paper." Kouakou added: "There may be an urgent need for
a solution to isolate the warring populations for a while to help subside the violence.
But it will not be in the interest of all parties to seek a secession of
the mainly Muslim north away from the Catholic south. "The partition of Sudan, a bordering country, is the evidence that the partition of a country is in fact not
the solution to deep ethnic rivalries in Africa." Smith said: "It's undesirable because the CAR as it stands is not a functioning state and has never
been a functioning state.
Cutting the C.A.R – which was the weakest part of French Equatorial Africa – in half will mean one half has virtually no
infrastructure of any kind. If you don't have Bangui, you don't really have anything."
"It serves nobody's interest to create another basket-case state that requires aid from the international community." Not all Muslims favour the move either. Ibrahim Alawad, one of a small band clinging to their homes in Bangui, said on Friday: "It cannot be just like that.
You grow up in one country and you live in one place. We want to know what is in the minds of our fellow Christians.
"I don't want to see the country divided. Why not dialogue?"
