In a refugee camp in the southern Central African Republic, groups of students are huddled around laptops, staring intently at the glowing screens.
There is no electricity, and no internet. But that hasn’t stopped 38-year-old IT expert Djamaladine Mahamat Salet from setting up a computer class here.
Salet rented four laptops, connected solar panels to a battery and created a classroom from old plastic sheeting, wire mesh and wood. He even managed to procure a blackboard.
He spends two hours every day teaching teenagers how to use computers, the internet and applications like Microsoft Word.
It’s a drop in the ocean, he admits, but better than nothing. “I’m trying to prepare these students so they can be successful when they go to university later,” he says. Without his project, around 100 young people in the camp wouldn’t have any education at all.
Years of poverty and civil war in the Central African Republic have left many young people with no access to education. As tensions continue to flare, experts fear that when peace finally returns, the population may lack the skills to help move the country forward.
The breakdown of the school system is only consequence of a civil war that has torn the country apart since the end of 2012.
One in three children in CAR are refugees and don’t go to school, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, which warns of a “lost generation” that will be unable to contribute to CAR’s reconstruction.
And their contribution is greatly needed – CAR is the second-poorest country in the world after Niger, according to the UN Human Development Index.
Around a quarter of CAR’s 5-million-strong population have been displaced. More than 540,000 people have fled the country and 700,000 have been displaced within its borders because of constant eruptions of violence.
The country’s humanitarian and political crisis was the subject of talks on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly in New York, led by President Faustin-Archange Touadera and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
At first glance, the conflict looks like a religious one: In 2013, the predominantly Muslim rebel alliance Seleka toppled the Christian president Francois Bozize and took control of the majority Christian population.
However, it was then pushed back by predominantly Christian militias, known as “anti-balakas.”
Murder, rape, villages razed, populations driven out – both sides have been accused of serious crimes.
The intervention of French troops in 2013 and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force temporarily calmed the situation, but fighting broke out again at the beginning of 2017. There are still around 13,000 blue helmets in the country today.
But the appearance of clear religious battle lines is deceptive. While it was Christian militias which drove IT expert Salet and around 1,600 other Muslims from the market town of Bangassou in May 2017 to the border with Congo, it is the Catholic Church which has offered them refuge.
They have set up camp on the church’s land, where they live in huts made of wood, lead and plastic sheeting. And in fact, there are churches all over the country giving shelter to Muslims.
The country’s religious leaders have long demonstrated their unity and commitment to peace. Pope Francis visited CAR in 2015 and called Christians and Muslims “brothers” who had to work for peace together.
All those responsible “are working for the return of peace and social cohesion, cohabitation and the return of refugees to their homes,” says the bishop of Bangassou, Juan-Jose Aguirre Munoz.
However, there are still young people ready to be goaded into violence by the warring factions.
For many refugees, a return to normality is therefore only a distant prospect. “We want to go home but the situation is still very difficult. There’s no security,” says Ali Idriss, the leader of the Muslims who live in the Catholic community.
“If we return to the town we will be stopped and killed. So we have to stay here. We never go out.”
Idriss says the refugees have lost their livelihoods. “We have nothing. We’ve all lost our houses. In some places, other people have taken over the land and built new houses.”
Salet’s computer classes provide at least a glimmer of hope for young refugees. If and when peace returns, Salet’s students will have a better chance in life.
Christina Muhigana, UNICEF representative in CAR, says the reconstruction of the country will be difficult because of the generations lost to the civil war.
“Tears come to your eyes when you see how people live,” she says. “It’s very hard to imagine it getting any worse.” – dpa
