Vie d’errance et crise identitaire des immigrés tchadiens musulmans en Centrafrique: le cas des retournés de Gaoui, au Tchad, de 2012 à 2019

Abstract

This study of Chadian migration to the Central African Republic (CAR) attempts to determine the apparent and underlying causes of the failure to integrate Muslim immigrants and the associated implications in a religiously charged civil war. The seizure of power by the Séléka, a Muslim-dominated militia, in March 2013, and the violence it committed against the Christian majority, led to a brutal and hateful reaction by Christian Anti-Balaka militiamen against Muslims. This led to their exodus to Chad where they are experiencing an identity crisis. The result is that this war, apparently religious, is only a political instrumentalization of the accumulated resentments between the two communities. The frustration of these exiles, linked to their being stuck in camps with no prospect of integration, and their fervent desire to return to the CAR, which faces visceral rejection by the Christian majority, can only accentuate the crisis. The unemployed youth in the camp are joining armed groups to maintain the status quo, which could lead to a community-based division of the CAR. The solution lies in a policy of tribal and community diversity, while respecting difference and overhauling the nationality code.