Boko Haram, CAR conflicts about more than religion, Cedar Rapids speakers say

Kidnappings and killings by extremist Islamic group Boko Haram in Nigeria and conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Central African Republic are about more than religion, said speakers at a human rights conference at Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha Saturday.

'Many people think what is going on in Central African Republic is a war between Christians and Muslims. But they lived together for many years without any problems,” said Esaie Toingar, a Cedar Rapids man from Chad.

Toingar is president and founder of Cedar Rapids-based human rights organization Wake Up For Your Rights. The group organized the event, 'I Fled My Country and I Need You,” to give refugees and immigrants from around Africa who now live in the Cedar Rapids area a chance to share their experiences with other Eastern Iowans.

People looking for the root causes of conflicts in Africa and around the world should look to economics, Toingar and other speakers said.

'Africa is a great continent. We have many resources,” Toingar said. 'Unfortunately those resources that should take Africa to the highest level become a source of bloodshed for the continent.”

Oil, gold, diamonds and minerals, and the corruption related to profits from those resources, have fed conflicts for decades, he said.

He talked about his experiences as a child soldier.

'In Chad we used to enjoy life together, Christian and Muslim,” he said. 'Then people received information in the south that Muslims were killing people in the north. Muslims were told Christians were killing people in the south.”

That was misinformation used to manipulate the public, he said, as different groups sought to control the country's resources.

'Our leaders engaged people to kill each other and used the name of religion to reach their target,” he said.

He said he wanted Iowans to understand that conflicts are not as simple as the media and as the leaders - both government and rebel - of those conflicts often lead people to believe.

'The underlying cause of conflicts have little to do with the superficial divisions and more to do with the manipulation of information by leaders and taking advantage of the socio-economic situation of people,” said panelist Amy Weismann, assistant director of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights.

Another panelist, Iowa State University professor Tunde Adeleke, originally from Nigeria, told the audience of around 50 people that he used to work in Maiduguri, the northeastern city where Boko Haram was founded. The group is most recently infamous for kidnapping nearly 300 school girls.

Adeleke said he used to teach at the university many of Boko Haram's leaders graduated from before they declared Western education forbidden.

He said Boko Haram's ranks are filled with young men who saw no economic future for themselves. Today the group recruits children living in extreme poverty.

'It's economic. There will always be opportunists who will exploit the vulnerability of children,” he said. 'Unless we understand those underlying dynamics we will not be able to talk about dealing with or even helping those children.”

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