31 March 2008
Bangui — Known variously as coupeurs de routes (highwaymen), Zaraguina or simply bandits, criminal gangs who kill, kidnap for ransom, loot and set fire to homes now pose the greatest threat to civilians in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR).
Their attacks have prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their villages to a precarious life in the nearby bush, hindered access to fields and markets, reduced imports along key trade routes, especially from Cameroon, and delayed the return of CAR refugees living in neighbouring Chad.
"The main threat to security in the country lies with these criminals," Jean-Sebastian Munie, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in CAR told IRIN.
The gangs are well-organised, well-connected and in large part foreign, travelling across the porous borders with Chad and Cameroon and even from as far away as Nigeria and Niger.
Andre's story
"On 28 December, 2007, I was cycling back to Bosangoa [a town in the northwest of CAR] with two other people after a fishing trip, when seven highwaymen armed with Kalashnikovs came out of the bush and set upon us. They had already abducted five other people.
"When people in the area realised what was going on they prepared to attack the bandits, but the bandits surrounded themselves with the eight people they had captured to prevent the villagers shooting at them. After a full day's walk, we reached their camp, where there were about 50 bandits, all of them foreigners. There were many other kidnapped people there, but they came and went as their ransoms were paid. On one day I counted 21 abductees chained together.
"When they took me I had 20,000 CFA francs (about US$450) on me from selling the fish. At the base, the bandits registered us and demanded a ransom of a million francs (US$2,200). Four young boys among the abductees were beaten up and told to take the list of those kidnapped to our mayor so he could tell our families to pay the ransom.
"I didn't have much money so my relatives sold some things, raising another 80,000 francs. When my son turned up with this at the camp, my captors said that was good for tea, and sent him away to get more. So my wife had to sell everything from our farm, which amounted to 150,000 francs. The bandits complained this still was not enough, but after beating me again, they let me go.
"During my abduction I suffered a lot and my house was destroyed in a fire."
George's story
"I used to work as a motorbike-taxi driver. One day in October last year I was riding back to town when all of a sudden two armed men appeared in front of me, and another two behind. Soon there were six in all, and nine abductees. They took my motorbike and told me to identify the people in the village who had money. When I said I didn't know they started to beat me and threatened to kill me.
"A few other people in the village were taken as well and after walking for 11 days we reached the bandits' camp at a place called Bilakare. This is a well known bandit stronghold. Many of them spoke Arabic, others the Peulh language.
"I spent three months there, chained up all the time together with 47 other prisoners, sleeping in the open, with no opportunity to wash. They did not feed us properly. We were badly beaten up, especially those who came from pro-government areas.
"They asked my family to pay two million CFA francs in ransom (US$4,400). They couldn't raise that much, even when they sold the cotton harvest and some of their land, but when they paid 775,000 francs I was released.
"This has happened to many people I know, including my brother-in-law. Now I have no bike and no work."
Little stands in their way. FACA, as the armed forces are known in CAR, a country roughly the size of France where state infrastructure barely exists outside the capital, comprise just 5,000 troops. But only half of these are thought to be on active duty.
For years, CAR and neighbouring Chad have been ravaged by numerous civil wars, rebellions and mutinies that have led to a proliferation of weapons and to a blurring of the lines between bandits and rebels. Although this article focuses mainly on CAR, highway banditry and kidnapping have long be a trans-national problem in this region, unfettered by weak state borders and fuelled by chronic and endemic under-development and unemployment.
Worsening security
A military coup that brought General François Bozize to power in 2003 deepened a security vacuum in northern CAR. Many of those who helped the former army chief to Bangui, including Chadian mercenaries, have also since turned to banditry, feeling that Bozize failed to deliver on alleged promises of recompense.
This worsening of security in the northwest was one of the purported reasons for the formation of the People's Army for the Restoration of Democracy/Armée Populaire pour la Restauration de la Démocratie, (APRD) a rebel group made up in part of self-defence units set up to protect villages from the Zaraguinas. Yet the ARPD itself has been widely accused of committing human rights abuses, including kidnapping and looting.
According to the International Crisis Group, among other sources, there are Zaraguina within the APRD.
"There are lots of cases of rebel-by-day, Zaraguina-by-night," said one humanitarian official in Bangui.
But in recent months Zaraguina attacks in CAR have "been more organised, more vicious, more violent and carried out by larger groups of 10 to 15 people", according to Annie Raykov, spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency.
"They affect almost the entire country now," said Olivier Bercault, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, after travelling around CAR.
He added: "The APRD chain of command is diluting and some of the rebels may make extra money on the side; there are certainly retreating Chadian rebels making money before going back to Chad and Chadian army defectors doing the same; and an aggressive anti-Zarguina policy in Cameroon that certainly pushed many of the bandits to operate in CAR."
No law, no justice
According to several reports on CAR and interviews conducted by IRIN, the lack of effective governance has made the country attractive to armed criminals for decades.
The bandits thrive in "an extremely poor environment, where there is no law, no justice and impunity prevails," said OCHA's Munie.
At first, they consisted mainly of poachers. While clashes took place with security forces, civilians were usually spared, even paid off for their silence with food, household goods and hunting rifles.
Later, the prized booty evolved from wild animals to merchandise trucked into landlocked CAR from neighbouring states. Well-armed highwaymen would stage dawn ambushes on goods convoys or attack market towns in border areas. The killing of the occasional civilian served to deter resistance.
The government reacted by providing armed escorts for the convoys, leading to frequent violent clashes with Zaraguina gangs. The resulting climate of fear and insecurity in northern CAR caused a major reduction in the flow of commercial goods convoys and led the bandits to revive the practice of cattle theft - which had first become common in the entire region when colonial powers put a stop to endemic local slavery.
The M'bororo ethnic group, for whom cattle are central to status and identity, have been particularly targeted, leading many to abandon their traditional nomadic lifestyle.
If a cattle herder failed to hand over enough animals to satisfy the Zaraguinas, it was common for one of his children, or his wife, to be kidnapped until he produced more.
Frequent attacks
Now, cash ransoms, often the equivalent of several thousands US dollars, are the norm.
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