Central African Republic bans text messages to target civil disobedience

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/central-african-republic-bans-text-messaging

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Text messages have been banned in the Central African Republic after they were used to call for a campaign of civil disobedience against resurgent sectarian violence.

Mobile phone users in the CAR who try to send texts get the response: "SMS not allowed."

Abdallah Assan Kadre, the communications minister, said: "On the instruction of the prime minister … in order to contribute to the restoration of security in the country, the use of SMS by all mobile-phone subscribers is suspended."

The clampdown came after a mass SMS was circulated urging a general strike in response to more than a year of conflict between Christian and Muslim militias that has killed thousands of people.

An organisation called Collectif Centrafrique Debout sent out the texts last weekend urging people to stay at home and demanding complete disarmament, especially of the PK5 Muslim neighbourhood in the capital, Bangui.

According to the French news website Jeune Afrique, the government sent a letter to the CAR's four phone mobile operators – France's Orange; Moov, a subsidiary of Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates; Global Telecom's Telecel, and Azur of Bahrain-registered BinTel – ordering them to suspend SMS texting services until further notice.

A source in the government told AFP that the suspension of text messages would last "for several days".

The CAR has been convulsed by religious violence since northern Seleka rebels, who are mostly Muslim, seized power in the predominantly Christian nation in 2013. The Seleka left power in January under international pressure after 10 months of looting and violence that had prompted Christian militias known as anti-balaka to perpetrate retaliatory attacks on Muslims.

An interim government led by Catherine Samba-Panza and backed by nearly 8,000 African Union and French peacekeepers is struggling to contain the violence that has displaced about a million of the country's 4.5 million people.

Public anger at the mayhem, and at the peacekeepers' failure to stop it, is intensifying. Three people were killed and several injured in Bangui last Friday when security forces fired on thousands of protesters calling for the departure of peacekeepers accused of failing to prevent an attack on a church in which 17 people were massacred.

Last Sunday, the prime minister, André Nzapayeke, appealed for people to return to work in Bangui following several days of protests that had paralysed the capital. He also called for voluntary national disarmament, with all citizens asked to hand in their weapons on 8 June.

French soldiers were booed by residents over the weekend in Miskine, a Christian neighbourhood of Bangui, according to an AFP report. In Muslim districts, chants of "No to France!" and anti-French insults are now commonly heard.

Noël Ngoulo, secretary general of Bangui University, told AFP: "When they arrived, we had hope that they were going to disarm the country. But as time has gone on, the population noticed that the disarmament was delayed. People are angry at the French because they have the impression that the mission objective has changed, from a mission of disarmament to one of simple intervention."