Who are the anti-balaka in scarred CAR?

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Anti Balaka fighters at Bangui’s estate PK9, waiting to attack Muslim IDPs convoys passing along the road.

Who are the anti-balaka?

In Soriano’s words: “We don’t know”.

Their leaders’ identity, their chain of command and their political programme are all unknowns, he told a meeting of community representatives in Bangui. At the same meeting, his African Union counterpart, Cameroonian Gen Martin Tumenta (commanding MISCA, the AU mission in CAR), expressed frustration that Bangui’s citizens have not been providing the force with more information about the anti-balaka.

An audience member’s claim that calls to a MISCA hotline number tend to go unanswered prompted an angry response from Tumenta. “So you’re calling us useless?” he said before walking out of the meeting.

“Balaka” is the Sango word for machete. Some sources say it also alludes to the French for bullets of an automatic rifle (“balle AK”). Either way, “anti-balaka” roughly means “invincible”, a power purportedly bestowed by the charms that hang around the necks of most members. The term gained currency five or six years ago, when it was applied to self-defence units set up - in the absence of effective state security forces - to protect communities from attacks by highway bandits or cattle raiders. 

Several rebel groups joined forces under the banner of the Seleka (“alliance” in Sango) forces in late 2012, and seized power the following March. “Anti-balaka” caught on as a generic term for those resisting the brutal Seleka (a word to which, since the alliance’s official disbanding in September 2013, the prefix “ex” has usually added).

Clashes in December 2013 between anti-balaka and the ex-Seleka led to reprisal attacks in which about 1,000 people died in Bangui. The anti-balaka have been largely responsible for driving the ex-Seleka from many of their bases in western CAR.

What is the religious connection?

 Most Seleka members were Muslim, chiefly because Islam is the more prevalent religion in the marginalized northern areas where rebel groups sprang up. Seleka members committed widespread atrocities after seizing power in March 2013, including killings, large-scale arson and rape.

More recently Muslims, many with no connection to the rebels, have been targeted in reprisals by anti-balaka and civilians. According to Amnesty International, such attacks have led tens of thousands to leave CAR in “an exodus of historic proportions”. 

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “the anti-balaka militias are increasingly organized and using language that suggests their intent is to eliminate Muslim residents from the Central African Republic.”

“At this rate, if the targeted violence continues, there will be no Muslims left in much of the Central African Republic,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.