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BANGUI. — Deprived of schooling by years of inept leadership, the forsaken youths of the Central African Republic see raiding and plundering as the only career their country has to offer.
There are looters among the Seleka rebels, looters among the Christian vigilantes fighting them and “freelance” looters – all vying for the meagre spoils of the year-old sectarian conflict.

It was already one of the world’s poorest nations before last year’s coup but now the Central African Republic is plundering itself into extinction. Jean-Gabriel Alaba, a computer scientist who lives with his family in the capital Bangui, said it should not come as a surprise that youngsters bite the hands that failed to feed them.

“Central Africa has sacrificed the future of its young generation on the altar of political gamesmanship. The future of our children is getting ever darker,” he said.

“What is happening now – young people committing massacres, pillaging, raping, stealing – was predictable. It’s because school never gave them anything.” In recent months, scenes of plundering by marauding armed groups or frenzied local youths have been a daily feature in the riverside capital and other cities. — AFP.