It was named Operation Sangaris, after a butterfly with a tiny lifespan native to central Africa. France hoped that its peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) would be similarly short-lived, reports The Guardian.
“The situation in the Central African Republic has become alarming, and even terrifying,” the French president, François Hollande, said in December 2013, ordering the deployment of 1,200 troops to reinforce the 400 already stationed there. “This operation will be short.”
Now the French troops sent to protect the tens of thousands displaced by the cycle of violence stand accused of exploiting the lawlessness engulfing CAR to engage in brutality themselves.
Some say France, with its long imperial history in Africa, is still motivated by guilt after its failure to halt the 1994 Rwandan genocide. More recently, it has launched successful armed interventions in former colonies including Ivory Coast and Mali. Its continued political, economic and military presence meant it was better placed than any other major power to intervene in the CAR, one of the most failed and forgotten states on the continent.
The poisoned legacy of French colonialism in the CAR has been half a century that saw five coups, a self-declared emperor whose lavish coronation was inspired by Napoleon, and barely functional infrastructure and institutions. Its natural wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium has attracted warlords such as the cult-leader-like Joseph Kony.
The latest debacle was triggered in March 2013 when president François Bozizé, mired in corruption, fled by helicopter after being ousted by an unwieldy coalition of rebels, bandits and guns for hire known as the Séléka. One of its leaders, Michel Djotodia, declared himself president, becoming the first Muslim to rule the majority-Christian nation of 4.6 million people.
Médecins sans Frontières described it as “a crisis on top of a crisis”, which only deepened a few months later when Djotodia tried to disband and disarm the Séléka. The rebels span further out of control, killing, looting and burning villages. Predominantly Muslim, they were joined by mercenaries from neighbouring Chad and the dreaded Janjaweed from Sudan’s Darfur region.
In retaliation, some Christians took up arms in vigilante militias known as “anti-balaka” — meaning anti-machete — and launched counterattacks against the Séléka and perceived Muslim collaborators. They perpetrated atrocities of their own, giving the Séléka a pretext for yet more aggression. The cycle of violence swept up thousands of child soldiers.