(MSF) – Bangassou could be a poster child for the mistakenly optimistic discourse around “stabilisation” and “normalisation” of the Central African Republic (CAR) that followed the latest elections in the country. The few colonial buildings in the town are still pockmarked by bullet holes, a remnant from the 2013 takeover by the Séléka rebellion that drove people to flee. But after close to two years of near total absence, state authorities have come back. A prosecutor was reinstated last December, then a judge, 30 constables, social services and a labour inspector. But this return does not mean that everything is back on track, and Bangassou town is just a pocket of relative peace in a highly unstable region.
