Political and Ethnic Identity in Violent Conflict: The Case of Central African Republic

The conflicts in the CAR were largely ignored by the international community until 2013. International interest rose with the presidential coup by Michel Djotodia, the first Muslim president of the CAR, who later resigned in January 2014. As the violence in the country escalated, it was mainly portrayed as a conflict fuelled by religion between Muslim militia, Christian defence units and civilians. This paper focuses on this conflict and contextualises it within a trajectory of conflict. It argues that the conflict has other facets apart from a religious strife, and includes ethnic and political factions and conflict as well. Through a case study method a narrative of events is provided and processes, groups and identities are analysed. The data were retrieved from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) briefing notes and news series, and cover the period from 2000 to 2014. The results show that apart from a long- standing conflict related to changes in political leadership, there are other paths of violence, which are representative of other ethnic and political identities. The violence, which is currently defined as sectarian religious conflict is actually related to the contestation of political leadership, and the exploitation of different conflicts and groups for purposes of power.