Monday October 09, 2017

The Central African Republic is facing some serious challenges right now.

Four years ago, the country was on the brink of genocide after the longtime strongman Francois Bozize was ousted in an armed rebellion. The violence quickly turned sectarian with Christian and Muslim militias attacking civilian populations and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. UN Peacekeepers along with French forces deployed to the country and prevented this crisis from spiraling totally out of control. A peace process emerged, a new government was elected and a tenuous peace took hold.

The French forces withdrew last October. Now, about 12,800 UN peacekeepers remain.

In recent months, though, violent conflict started to re-emerge -- particularly in more remote parts of the country. The trend-lines now are not as positive as they were a year ago.

This episode on the Central African Republic is in two parts.

I speak with a member of Congress, David Cicilline of Rhode Island.

He visited the country in August…