So, bad news: the peace process here has ended. All of the parties have walked out b/c the president chose to extend amnesty only to his own forces and not to others involved in the peace process. From what I’ve been hearing from people outside of Bangui, the response has been immediate: violence is breaking out in the north of country.
People in Bangui aren’t concerned yet, but . . . This country is only as big as France. Ironically, this is one of the situations in which you hope that the civil infrastructure is bad enough that the rebels can’t reach the capital (there are three or four anti-gov’t forces) . . . but that’s how the last coup happened, so we’ll see.
Hopefully I’ll see you all at the end of August 🙂
[Honestly, I wouldn’t worry: although the situation is serious, it’s really a resumption of what was going on before and not an escalation beyond that]
