ICC Note:
As religious violence continues to envelop the Central African Republic (CAR), pitting Christian against Muslim, there are some who are acting above the violence. One church in CAR is offering shelter and protection to 700 Muslims caught in the violence. This act of kindness and love is a true reflection of Christ’s love. Please pray for the protection of this church and the people taking shelter there.
1/22/2013 Central African Republic (Christian Post) – A Central African Republic priest has opened his church as a shelter to Muslims fleeing the anti-balaka (anti-machete) Christian militias terrorizing his community.
“I am not going to let anyone hurt the people inside my church, it doesn’t matter whether they are Christians or Muslims,” Xavier Fagba, who leads a church in Boali, a city northwest of the capital Bangui, told FRANCE 24.
At the service on Sunday, Fagba told his congregation to make their Muslim counterparts feel comfortable and greet one another with a “kiss of peace.”
“We just stop causing people pain,” he said.
Jean-Claude, a Christian, encouraged Ahmad – his Muslim neighbor for years – with a hug at the end of the service.
“You need to be strong. Stay positive,” Jean-Claud told his neighbor, who recently had his house destroyed in the violence.
Ahmad said that although he felt that there were individuals trying to protect him, he felt that he would not be fully safe unless he made it to the capital.
“There are people here who are good to us,” Ahmad told The Daily Nation. “But we can’t stay here any longer. We have to leave. I want to go to Bangui, at least there is still some safety there.”
Currently about 70 French troops are guarding Fagba’s church, where 700 Muslims, mostly women and children, are staying. The volume of people has put a strain on the church’s resources, especially its sanitary conditions, however, without a method to evacuate the people safely they are planning to remain sheltered there.
Fagba told BD Live that the church needed “trucks to evacuate all these people” as Muslims who flee on the road could be confronted with spontaneous roadblocks set up by the Christian militia.
Many of the individuals who fled to Fagba’s church were headed toward the capital when they were targeted by members of the Christian militia. Although French soldiers had been able to fight off a Muslim group earlier, they were ill-prepared for the anti-balaka group. The attack killed four people and wounded 20 others, reported local priest Boris Wiligale.
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