Christians and Muslims in Africa experience war (Photo)

Christians and Muslims in Africa experience war (Photo)

In the Ndotu camp for the displaced, about 3km outside Batangafo, a town in the Central African Republic (CAR), 800 people live in improvised houses made of wood and maintained by dry grass. Within the camp, women sit outside their dwellings, heat corn or hot vegetables, blend children's hair [...]

Within the camp, women sit outside their quarters, heat corn or boiling vegetables, combine children's hair or work with neighbors, reported “Al Jazeera”, broadcast Periscope.

Others are caught among the green roots in small vegetables, a dark brown-laar and eyelashe, where previously there was a forest of long trees. Men, mostly elderly, sit in the shade of a mango tree near the entrance of the camp. They speak and wait for the time of prayer.

The displaced here belong to the Fulani tribe, a nomad people wandering in Central and West Africa; they are known for spending many days seeking pasture to feed their cows.

They're always on the move, and their house is the road. But many of the people in this camp have had no livestock.

During the peak in CAR instability in 2014, many cattle larvae Fulani were targeted by anti-balaka groups in a series of penal attacks on the Muslim minority on the crimes of the rebels Celec.

At that time, the elders Fulani were accused of violating their livestock, where they ate Christian farms and destroyed their vegetation. This has reportedly exacerbated numerous Muslim-Christian tensions.

Adour Takads, head of the Fulani tribe in Batangafo, confirmed “Al Jazeera” that some Fulani took their animals to the farms, but said these incidents were not the source of the conflict.

The source of the conflict is that people still fight for power”, Takads said.

Fearing for their lives, as violence between rival groups intensified, hundreds of Fulani families fled to Chad or were put in three camps between Cabo and Batangafo countries.

At the end of 2015 and 2016, some families returned from Chad and settled in camps as a first step toward returning to their old life. But they've been stuck in camps ever since.

Living in Chad was harder because we couldn't eat food, so we went back to”, says Ousmane Moussa, 56, a representative of the returnee from Chad who lives in the Ndoubou camp.

Much of CARU is still being led by armed groups, and the country has been experiencing some of the worst violence since 2014.

About 600,000 people are internally displaced and 2.1 million people suffer from food shortages.

Today, about 4,000 people, mostly Fulani and some Christian farmers, live in all three camps. Not only has the loss of their animals meant a loss of life but it has also interrupted the whole way of life.

Continued Violence

According to the Norwegian Council of Refugees, there is little indication that the country is moving towards lasting peace. Although the country held elections in 2016, governance and security are still limited in the capital.

“The security situation and humanity has clearly deteriorated in recent months. There is no good positive sign”, says Ingrid Beauquis, a Council spokeswoman, for “Al Jazeera” from Bangui capital.

“Civils pay a heavy price for the violence imposed by the armed group. Often, they are cut off by the much needed humanitarian aid”, said Yaye Nabo Sene, spokeswoman at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for “Al Jazeera”.

 

Cabo was hit by severe flooding in recent days.

More than 470 houses were destroyed, and 385 farms were flooded. Now more than 800 homes need help, according to “O CHA”

When “Al Jazeera” spoke to Nario Zaido, a 36-year-old displaced man who lived in the camp during the dry season earlier this year, he told of living conditions and poorly built huts.

When it rains, I must rise, because the house is flooded. Only after it stops, can I sleep”, she said.

But Fulani's shepherds still hold to expectations that they will return to their lives. /Periscopi/

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