Last June, when I first arrived in the Central African Republic (CAR), one of the resident ex-pats suggested I visit 'Cinq Kilo' - Bangui's largest market. 'It's rowdy, but fun.' He said. 'Take someone local with you; it's famous for pickpockets too.' I liked the market, and soon felt confident enough to take one of the shared yellow public taxis back there alone. Speaking Arabic helped me bargain, as the vast majority of traders in Cinq Kilo were Muslim. Six months later anti-Balaka fighters attacked Bangui, effectively overthrowing the resident Seleka regime. Anti-Balaka commanders talked to me about 'Liberating' CAR from the violent excesses of Seleka, saying they had nothing against ordinary Muslims. But their own fighters dumped corpses with slit throats outside Mosques in Cinq Kilo, and Muslim businesses were looted en masse. Inter-communal violence spewed across Bangui for months. Cinq Kilo and its neighbourhoods became Bangui's 'No-go Zone'. Fifteen hundred French 'Sangaris' soldiers, and thousands of troops deployed from the African Union struggled to control the violence, or to win the trust of local people, wary of foreign political agendas, especially the French. A curfew was introduced to try and limit the endless car-jacking, armed burglaries and other [...]
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