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Monday, January 27, 2014

....next!






With the Selekas  gone,we are now facing the Antibalakas. Not one day goes by without discussions or meetings aiming only to reason and to cease violence, rubbery and intimidation. The State doesn't exist and it's very hard to keep everybody calm.
I'm ever so worried for the Muslims and Peuls, who had to leave their homes after the Antibalakas threatened them, they lost almost everything, because of the plunders. We try our best to suppor and help them with water and rice supplies.
The path to peace is long and hard. I often say it's like an unborn child, in need of many attention.

Tuesday, the 21st of January 2014
Finally a day with less issues. In the morning MISCA soldiers arrived, also Bozoum received a delegation of : ONU OCHA, PAM, Unicef, HCR, hopefully they'll be more proactive and decisive.
In the afternoon we heard that Selekas had left Bouar, only for the Northside....in Bocaranga it was a real disaster!
Here's the missionaries testimony:
Here in Bocaranga our mission is in the hands of the Selakas who just left Bouar to get to Chad. They're shooting all over the place with heavy weapons. Father Cipriano sent news that they shot as madmen, there are holes in the convent's walls. They stole cars, money, computers, phones, digital cameras.....they took everything away, it was terrible. A refugee woman has Ben killed, father Nestor has a wounded arm. They're saying this enemy columns are going to Ndim e Ngaoundaye. We just informed the monks there to watch out and take care. At this very moment the Selakas are shooting.
At 9 pm here in Bozoum more shooting. We were told only afterwards it was the MISCA trying to intimidate the Antibalakas


Wednesday and Thursday, the 22nd and 23rd of January 2014
All in all we heard twenty shots in 48 hours....could this be the beginning of tranquility?  We keep on having meetings with Antibalaks and people on these sensitive matters. I visited the Muslims and Peuls many times each day, many have lost everything after the rain sacks of the previous days. There's almost 2500 of them, they are scared and forced to live in harsh conditions indeed. I brought them water and 250 kg of rice the farmers sold me. The Pam rations had gone since a month. With OCHA and UNHCR we went to see what's left of the villages that Selekas had burned to the ground along the Bossangoa, Paua and Bouar routes. Antibalaks began to go back home to their villages and the people who fled to the forest are slowly coming back only to find their homes in ashes (so far we counted up to 1357 burned houses for a total of 6000 people)
 Few villages opened the schools. 
Here in Bozoum only our schools have students attending, I'm sure the others will follow eventually.

Friday, the 24th of January 2014
Quiet night. Few Antibalakas around demanding all Muslims to be gone....
Anyways, we kept on calming down people and tried to get some results. At 830 am I went to Bata, 7 km far, where there's an evangelic school. I brought 450 kg of rice. As they saw the car the women began to sing and dance out of sheer joy! 
We kept on meeting the Antibalaks inviting them to go home and maintain calm. With the Selekas gone there's no point in them staying here....moreover there's so much to be done now






la riapertura del mercato
la reprise du marché


Il bambino ha 7 mesi!!!
l'enfant a 7 mois!!!

la scuola... a Badali 2
l'école... à Badali 2


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