The IRC hopes that Pope Francis’s brief visit to the Central African Republic this week will spotlight the sectarian violence that is preventing assistance from reaching people in urgent need in a war-torn country that rarely makes headlines.
“We ask for security and peace. When we see militias with arms everywhere, it’s scary. It’s really scary. […] They need to be disarmed in an effective way – that would let us breathe a little. Now, we are in prison in our own country.”
- Blasco Ouamoundjou, who runs humanitarian programs for AEDM, an International Rescue Committee partner based in Bangui, Central African Republic.