Better in their words…

I have friends who have spend 30 years in CAR…
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By Charlize Theron
Sept. 18, 2014 6:57 p.m. ET

A United Nations peacekeeping force approved by the Security Council began deploying to the Central African Republic Monday. The force, which is expected to include 10,000 troops and 2,000 police, arrives in an already poor country that descended into lawlessness during two years of sectarian violence.

There is much strife and sorrow in Africa, from Boko Haram’s rampages in Nigeria to Ebola in West Africa. But please spare a thought for the Central African Republic, where hundreds of thousands are in desperate need of protection and humanitarian aid.

Walking down the long, well-lit hallway of a hotel last month, I heard the faint sounds of Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World.” It resonated in a strange way. An hour earlier I had landed in Bangui, the republic’s capital, and based on what I had already seen myself or heard from others, this was the last place where Louis Armstrong would have been moved to sing that song.

CAR has had a history of overthrown governments and political unrest. Competition for power and resources has driven the country’s conflict. Decades of neglected development, long-term state failure and, of course, chronic poverty (close to 70% of the population lives below the poverty line) all led to the current crisis.

In March 2013, an armed rebel group called the Seleka overthrew the government. The Seleka come from the mostly Muslim northern part of the country, with fighters also joining them from Chad and Sudan. They have massacred numerous villages, killing thousands, raping women and children, and recruiting children as soldiers. The attacks created a staggering humanitarian crisis.

In response to Seleka abuses, self-defense groups known as the anti-Balaka, mostly Christians, emerged and grew in numbers. In December 2013 the anti-Balaka carried out a major attack on Bangui, forcing the Seleka to retreat and regroup. By January of this year, the Seleka had ceded power and a new president, Catherine Samba-Panza —Bangui’s mayor—was elected to head the government’s interim administration. However, control of the capital has not stopped the violence.

The unrest has left CAR in complete disarray, dividing communities that had long coexisted peacefully. Schools and government buildings have been destroyed. Drug supplies to clinics and hospitals have been disrupted by the unrest, making the work of humanitarian-aid organizations incredibly difficult. With roads often closed and humanitarian workers being attacked, many aid groups have pulled out.

I spent a few days with Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, and an organization called Emergency, an Italian group specializing in pediatric care and surgery. It left me speechless how these volunteers continue to work despite almost impossible conditions. I visited with mothers, fathers and grandparents who were worried for themselves, but even more so for their children.

At one of Emergency’s clinics in Bangui, I met a 16-year-old boy named Prince Matidi. On Dec. 25 last year—Christmas Day—he and three friends found themselves in the middle of the violence. He said that they tried to run away, but all three were shot. Prince was shot in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. As he lay in the dirt unable to move, he said, Seleka rebels hacked at him with machetes. Both of his friends died that night. A family member found him hours later and took him to the hospital. Months later he ended up at the clinic, ridden with infected bedsores.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this young boy lying in the dirt, left for dead on a night when back home millions of children were opening Christmas presents, safe and happy. I asked him, “What do you wish for, Prince?” “For peace,” he said. I couldn’t look at him without seeing my own son. Or look at his worried grandmother by his side and not see my son’s grandmother. It’s easy to perceive similarities among human beings, but in this setting it is almost impossible to understand the realities of what others have actually experienced.

Mother Teresa once said, “If we have no peace, it’s because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” She was right. We have a responsibility to not forget the people of the Central African Republic, and to press the international community to do more. A million people have been displaced, most of them from the Muslim minority, fleeing to neighboring countries. More than half a million people are refugees within CAR, of which over a hundred thousand are displaced in Bangui alone.

I visited three refugee camps in the city. Two are run by the International Organization for Migration. The people there survive on almost nothing. Families scattered everywhere, children lying lifeless on the ground, malnutrition and disease slowly killing them. The International Organization for Migration has done an incredible job bringing health care through mobile clinics and taking care of the immediate need, which is enormous. But there is only so much they can do.

International efforts to address the crisis in CAR have remained woefully inadequate. Political solutions need to be found to stop the violence, protect civilians and reconcile communities. The arrival this week of U.N. peacekeepers is only a start. Half of the country’s population—2.5 million people—needs humanitarian aid. That number will only increase if the international community doesn’t step in now with a strong, coordinated effort.

As I left Bangui after a week and the plane began to taxi, hundreds of children were suddenly running alongside, smiling from ear to ear. Their parents looked on from decrepit tents pitched nearby. They now live next to an airport because the thought of the troops stationed there makes them feel at least a little safer. It was both a grim yet beautiful sight. Maybe Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World” isn’t so out of place here after all. These children are beautiful. Their world is upside down right now, but what I saw in their faces was absolutely powerful.

Ms. Theron, an actress, has served as a U.N. messenger of peace since 2008 and in 2007 founded the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project.
Charlize Theron: Spare a Thought for This Little-Noticed Disaster – WSJ.