Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on Press TV's Top Five. Azikiwe is a frequent guest on satellite television news., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Interview with Abayomi Azikiwe
Sun Feb 9, 2014 8:58AM
To watch this Press TV interview with Abayomi Azikiwe just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/09/349913/france-unable-to-help-bangui-muslims/
Press TV has interviewed Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, from Detroit, to discuss France’s involvement in the Central African Republic.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Are we seeing ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic take place?
Azikiwe: I wouldn’t call it ethnic cleansing. It’s based upon factionalism. The Muslim population is only 15 percent of the overall number of people inside the Central African Republic. It’s a very dangerous situation that’s in existence right now.
I think it’s incumbent upon the new interim government there to make it very clear to the Christian population or those elements within the Christian population who are engaging in this type of violence to immediately cease fire.
A lot of this is being done supposedly in retaliation for the atrocities that were committed by the former ruling Seleka coalition, that was headed by Michel Djotodia, who has now resigned.
What people have to understand is that even though there were atrocities committed by the Seleka coalition, it did not represent, for example, the overall sentiment of the majority of the Muslim population inside the Central African Republic. These were individual acts that were carried out by an apparatus that was in control of the state since last March up until last month.
It is very important that the African Union as well as the interim government take a clear position that this has to stop; otherwise it’s going to have long-term implications for stability not only in the Central African Republic but also possibly in neighboring Chad.
There’s been reports that thousands upon thousands of Muslims are fleeing the Central African Republic now. Many of them are housed in refugee or internally displaced camps and, of course, a lot of them are just trying to get out of the capital particularly Bangui.
Press TV: The presence of French African troops also comes into question. What are they supposed to be doing there? –Because it seems according to many they’re acting very differently.
Azikiwe: Yes, the French who intervened initially, who took a hostile position against the government of Michel Djotodia, and were very instrumental in forcing him to resign last month at a regional meeting in the capital of Chad in N'Djamena, seemed to be now doing virtually nothing to help with the assistance of the defense of the Islamic community in Bangui and in other regions of the country. This is extremely unfortunate.
The Chadian military, from the reports that we’ve received, have been trying to protect to a limited degree the Muslim population that’s under threat and that’s under attack, helping to transport them to safe-havens and also out of the country.
But the intervention of France inside the country, as well as their allies, has done nothing to stabilize the situation. It’s clearly made it worse.
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