
War in the Central African Republic
The Central African Republic's collapse into sectarian violence gets a ground-level look here, as Muslim Seleka rebels who seized power in 2013 give way to a brutal backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias. Reporters travel through Bangui and outlying towns, filming burned neighborhoods, makeshift roadblocks, and the camps where nearly a million people, roughly a fifth of the country, have fled after being driven from their homes. Fighters on both sides speak on camera about revenge killings and machete attacks, while aid workers and displaced families describe life inside the camps, where disease and hunger compound the danger from the fighting outside. Thousands have already died in the year covered by the film, and the reporting keeps returning to how quickly a political power struggle turned into religious slaughter between neighbors who had lived together for generations. It is a blunt, on-the-ground account of a war that received little international attention while it was happening.