The Forgotten Disaster in the CAR

Last class we spoke a lot about what classifies as a disaster. One of the questions we touched on is if a hurricane hits an island is that really a disaster? The answer was no because no human lives were lost. If this is the case, then why has the international community ignored the conflict in the Central African Republic, which will have been going on for two years as of March 24th and has claimed thousands of lives?

The conflict, which many who are aware of the conflict are calling a disaster, began March 24th of 2013, as there was a coup by a group of rebel Muslims, the Seleka. In a country where there were already many coups leading up to the Seleka coup and where tensions have always been high between Muslims and Christians, there have even been "acts of genocide" reported against Muslims during this conflict. As of September 15th of 2014, more than 5,000 people had died since December of 2013. In addition, one article from November of 2013, reports that 400,000 people were displaced within the country and there were 64,000 refugees at that time. This was just eight months after the official beginning of the conflict, one can only imagine what those numbers would be today. And unfortunately, unless there is more media coverage, we may never know what the official numbers are to date.





So the question is: Why aren't we hearing about this?

Well, the problem is it seems that there is barely any media coverage of the conflict, even by worldwide news sources, such as the BBC and Al Jazeera. Earlier when I said that the international community is ignoring the conflict, that was an exaggeration. The UN and African Union peacekeepers have had a presence in the country during the conflict. Along with this, France and South Africa have both deployed troops to try to help calm tensions. This task has been difficult because of the amount of insecurities that come with entering this unstable country, and the fact that there is still not a strong enough peacekeeping strategy or structure in the continent of Africa. Though in many unstable countries, such as those in the Middle East who experience disasters, there is usually an outcry from the international community, especially when "acts of genocide" are reported.

Something that is missing from this "disaster", besides the media coverage, is the United States. Since the US is the greatest power in the world, it seems that only when the US government calls a tragedy a disaster it becomes a disaster. One article comments on this fact by reporting that the US and France do not want another "failed African state" to be responsible for.

This conflict/disaster begs the question that for some tragedy, whether man made or natural, to become a "disaster" and relevant to the world, does the United States have to get involved and declare it a disaster, even when the UN has cautioned at the "risk of genocide"?

Sources:
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/11/central-african-republicisdescendingintoanarchy.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13150040