Central African Republic: Muslims Trapped in Enclaves

They fear attacks if they leave, but interim government authorities and United Nations peacekeepers block them from fleeing abroad or provide no security assistance when they try to leave.

“Those trapped in some of the enclaves face a grim choice: leave and face possible attack from anti-balaka fighters, or stay and die from hunger and disease,” said Lewis Mudge, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“While there are good reasons to ensure that the country’s Muslim population does not diminish further, under the current circumstances, the government’s policy of no evacuations is absolutely indefensible.”

UN peacekeepers should not be complicit in preventing Muslims from leaving to seek safety, Human Rights Watch said.

Camp leaders in the western Muslim enclaves of Yaloké, Carnot, and Boda told Human Rights Watch during a research mission from December 7 to14, 2014, that an estimated 1,750 Muslims, many of them ethnic Peuhl herders, are desperate to leave.

They say that many are trapped in places where they never lived, that they are unable to leave for fear of the anti-balaka fighters, who have been attacking the country’s Muslims, and that the UN peacekeeping force, MINUSCA, is not authorized to help them seek safety. In the Yaloké enclave, UN peacekeepers have repeatedly used force to stop Muslims from leaving, Human Rights Watch reported.

The vast majority of Muslims in western parts of the country fled brutal attacks by Christian and animist anti-balaka militia in late 2013 and early 2014.

Those who were not able to reach Cameroon or Chad became trapped in the enclaves, where they have spent months living in difficult conditions.

UN officials, as well as African Union (AU) MISCA and French Sangaris peacekeepers supported evacuations in late 2013 and early 2014, helping thousands of Muslims to seek safety, including in Cameroon. The Chadian army also evacuated thousands of Muslims.