Central African Republic: French Intervention Risky for Hollande
The Central African Republic is on the verge of collapse, as religious warfare threatens to devolve into genocide. Now French President François Hollande is sending 1,200 troops to end the violence -- but France runs the risk of becoming embroiled in complicated power struggles.
While chaos and violence reigned in the Central African Republic's capital of Bangui on Friday, some 5,000 kilometers away in Paris, French President François Hollande held a pompous Élysée Summit for Peace and Security in Africa. Before hosting the VIP group of heads of state and government, Hollande had announced he was sending troops to the Central African Republic -- the continent's "strategic buffer," where 1,200 French soldiers are now tasked with putting a stop to the killings, in cooperation with an international UN aid mission.
"France supports this operation. We have a responsibility to assist and show our solidarity," Hollande declared. He can count of the financial support of the European Union and the United States -- and on the restraint of those in power in Bangui: In the wake of recent massacres, before the United Nations Security Council approved the intervention, Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye had expressly asked for military assistance.
And it is urgently needed. After months of fighting, the Central African Republic is on the verge of collapse. Less than a year after a diverse group of regime opponents and demobilized military men under the name Séléka (Coalition) installed current President Michel Djotodia in Bangui, the country is dissolving into murderous conflicts and the government has lost control.
Religious Turf War
The predominantly Muslim Séléka alliance gave rise to marauding groups of soldiers who terrorized the north with rapes and murders, setting off a humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, more than 400,000 people have fled. Then armed militias formed to oppose the mostly Islamic and widely feared gangs, but according to reports by human rights organizations, the mostly Christian Anti-Balaka groups have behaved just as mercilessly. A religiously motivated civil war is brewing, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speaks of a "state on the edge of genocide."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/french-intervention-in-central-african-republic-risky-for-hollande-a-937595.html