Before the violence began, about 122,000 Muslims called Bangui home. By 2014, that number had collapsed to roughly 15,000, nearly all of them crowded into a neighborhood known as PK5 -- shorthand for Point Kilomètre 5, the distance marker on the road from the city center. What followed was not a single battle but a slow, grinding siege that lasted from 2013 to 2020, during which the residents of PK5 were trapped between the Anti-balaka militias who wanted them gone and the self-defense groups who claimed to protect them but increasingly preyed on them instead. It is one of the least-known humanitarian catastrophes of the twenty-first century.
The crisis that would seal PK5's fate began in December 2013, when Anti-balaka attacks against Muslim communities in Bangui triggered the formation of armed self-defense groups inside the neighborhood. The logic was survival: if no one else would protect PK5's residents, they would protect themselves. But armed groups, once formed, develop their own interests. By 2015, leaders like Haroun Gaye commanded fighters equipped with firearms, rocket launchers, and grenades -- enough firepower to hold off a MINUSCA arrest operation for seven hours in August of that year. Between September and November 2015, clashes between Anti-balaka fighters and PK5 self-defense groups killed at least 100 people, displaced 35,000, and destroyed more than 1,075 buildings. On November 30, Pope Francis visited PK5 and called for peace. The violence paused, briefly. Then it resumed.
The self-defense groups splintered. Factions with names like "Force," "50/50," and "Mujahideen" fought each other as often as they fought outsiders, and the people of PK5 found themselves paying taxes to armed men who offered protection in the way a protection racket does -- pay or suffer. In January 2018, when merchants refused to pay the "Force" militia, 47 shops were damaged in the ensuing violence. The militias assassinated the national police commander, Mombéka Marcel, in October 2016. They murdered a local pastor, Jean-Paul Sankagui, in February 2017. On May 1, 2018, fighters led by Amineri Matar stormed the Church of Fatima inside PK5, killing 27 people and wounding 170 in what should have been a place of sanctuary. For the besieged residents, the distinction between protector and predator had long since dissolved.
In April 2018, MINUSCA and the Central African Armed Forces launched "Operation Sukula" to disarm PK5's militias. It was a disaster. Two militiamen were killed and 12 peacekeepers wounded in the initial operation, but the real catastrophe came on April 10, when Rwandan peacekeepers fired into a crowd that included armed protesters near the district's outskirts. Thirty people died. One hundred were injured. A single Rwandan peacekeeper was killed. Security forces withdrew, and the neighborhood descended further into chaos. Demonstrations against MINUSCA followed, with residents displaying the bodies of 17 people killed in the clashes. The operation meant to restore order had instead deepened the distrust between PK5's residents and the international forces stationed among them.
The siege's breaking point came, improbably, over Christmas toys. On December 26, 2019, militia members tried to force merchants to pay a tax on toy sales. A trader stabbed one of the militants to death. The clashes that erupted killed at least 35 people and burned 50 houses, but they also exhausted the neighborhood's tolerance for its own armed groups. On December 31, the United Nations declared PK5 an arms-free zone. On January 4, 2020, police returned to the district for the first time in six years. By mid-January, the UN claimed to have dismantled all 13 militia bases. Water service was restored in March. Tax collection -- the legitimate kind, by the government -- resumed the same month. The siege was over, though what remained of PK5 bore little resemblance to the neighborhood that 122,000 people had once called home.
Located at 4.375N, 18.538E in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, on the north bank of the Ubangi River. PK5 is in the city's 3rd arrondissement, roughly 5 km northeast of the city center. From altitude, Bangui is visible along the riverbank with the Central African Republic to the north and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south across the Ubangi. Nearest major airport is Bangui M'Poko International Airport (FEFF), located approximately 7 km northwest of PK5. The Ubangi River provides a clear visual reference for navigation.