The forgotten conflict by Frederic Sautereau (29 images)

Frederic Sautereau receives the 15th Paris Match Award of the Photo Reportage for his work on Central African Republic.

"The populations of the Central African Republic are attacked from all sides. They have been subjected to assaults from bandits, their own army and now the Chadian army". Human Rights Watch.
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Frederic Sautereau receives the 15th Paris Match Award of the Photo Reportage for his work on Central African Republic.

"The populations of the Central African Republic are attacked from all sides. They have been subjected to assaults from bandits, their own army and now the Chadian army". Human Rights Watch.

For three years now, hundreds of thousands of Central Africans have been displaced or become refugees.
Despite the presence of the UN and several NGOs in the region, their situation remains tenuous.
Since 2006, the Central African armed forces and, in particulier, the Presidential Guard, have burned ten thousand houses in the north west region of the country. A campaign of summary executions and rapes commited as a response to the APRD (Armed for the Restauration of Democracy and the Republic) rebels' presence in the region has forced the locals to flee into the bush for safety.
The APRD has never accepted the putsch in 2003 by François Bozizé, nor the rigged elections two years later which saw him become president. The north west suffered terribly with the presence of Chadian militiamen who crossed the border to support the putsch of General Bozizé. Captain Laurent Djim Woy, spokesman for the APRD, insists that they will not lay down their arms "until a political solution can be found to stop the suffering of the Central African people".
Although numbering only a few hundred badly equipped members, the APRD nevertheless controls all acesss routes in the north west and presents an armed opposition to the militarys' manoeuvres. Only the large cities remain in the hands of the Bangui authorities.
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