The Egmont Institute hosted the launch of the book ‘Making Sense of the Central African Republic’, in the presence of four of its authors and leading experts on the Central African Republic (CAR): Tatiana Carayannis (Social Science Research Council), Louisa Lombard (Yale University), Faouzi Kilembe (Programme Pôle de Développement CAR), and Enrica Picco (MSF). The book provides the first in-depth analysis of the country’s history of rebellion, instability, and international and regional intervention. At the centre of a tumultuous region, the CAR and its turbulent history have often been overlooked. Security and democracy, in any kind of a meaningful sense, has eluded the country. Since the mid-1990s, army mutinies and serial rebellion in the CAR have resulted in two successful coups. Over the course of these upheavals, the country has become a laboratory for peacebuilding initiatives, hosting a two-decade-long succession of UN and regional peacekeeping missions, special political missions, and bilateral military interventions. The presentations focused on the history of intervention, the drivers of the conflict, and the failures and future prospects for peacebuilding in the country.

(Photo credit: hdptcar,  Flickr)