"I am deeply saddened to hear that for the second time in two weeks, the homes of thousands of families fleeing violence in the Central African Republic went up in flames. Just a week after my visit to the country, a site of 18,000 persons in the small town of Alindao was burned to the ground. Once again the international community has failed to protect civilian communities and prevent the endless cycle of violence causing an equally endless cycle of displacement of countless children, women and men.
Earlier this month, and just before I travelled to CAR, another displacement site was burned to the ground in Batangafo forcing 27,000 displaced persons to flee again and further increasing the humanitarian needs. The population of CAR lives in perpetual fear, with little alternatives than to flee and hide in the bush under the constant threat of violence.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Central African Republic is steering towards another catastrophe unless the parties that celebrated the peace agreement now do a much greater investment in conflict resolution diplomacy, effective peacekeeping and scale up humanitarian and developmental work. We must hold the armed parties on the ground, the neighbouring countries and the international community led by the EU, the US, the AU and Russia accountable for what they do and refrain from doing in the coming weeks. We must re-examine our efforts and invest in addressing the root causes of conflict to break the cycle of conflict and better protect civilians in need. We must find ways to create incentives for peace."
Jan Egeland, Secretary General, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)