Photo Credit: Refugees International
03/14/2007

Over 200,000 Central Africans have abandoned their homes since 2005 and are now hiding in their fields, just managing to survive under life-threatening conditions. The root cause of their misfortune is political, as people in a large swath of the northern part of the country are suffering from a long period of neglect by the central government in Bangui. Armed rebellions in the north have sprung up out of frustration with the lack of health care, education, and economic development over the past twenty years. Government troops, particularly the Presidential Guard, have provoked massive displacement by burning and looting villages and summarily executing civilians in retaliation for rebel attacks.