Breaking the System: The UN's Response to Regionalised Conflict in the Central African Republic

Abstract

Surrounded by fragile and unstable states on all sides, the Central African Republic is located within a complex system of violence in which various conflicts feed and perpetuate each other. Facilitated by porous borders and tribal loyalties, regionalised conflicts have become an almost constant feature of life in the hinterlands of Sudan, South Sudan, the CAR and Chad. In focusing on the Seleka Rebellion of 2012, and locating it within this system of conflict, this thesis seeks to illustrate the cycles of violence such an arrangement helps to create. Building on this, the thesis will argue that the inability for the UN to locate the CAR within a conflict system and accommodate for this in their peacekeeping efforts, rendered the initial MINUSCA intervention of 2014 a misguided approach at bringing stability to the country. This thesis will argue that the UN must begin to address the structural issue which allow for cycles of violence to continue across the region. In order to do this, this thesis argues that, the statist discourse that pervaded the MINUSCA mandate must be replaced with a great appreciation for the lived reality of those in Central Africa, in particular by embracing tribal loyalties.