ICC Note:
After the government was overthrown by the Muslim rebel group, Seleka, religiously motivated violence has been ripping apart the Central African Republic. Thousands of Christians have fled the violence seeking shelter in nearby countries and cities. As the conflict has dragged on, both Muslim and Christian groups has perpetrated unspeakable acts of violence. Will the international community take action decisive enough to bring an end to this violence? Please pray. 
12/24/2013 Central African Republic (New York Times) – When the killing began, Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga did what many would have expected of him: He opened his church to hundreds of Christian families fleeing the Muslim militias hunting them.
But he also provided refuge to an unusual friend and partner: the most senior Muslim cleric here, Imam Oumar Kobine Layama, who was under threat himself from vengeful Christians.
For months, the two religious leaders, along with the leading Protestant cleric, tried to head off the brewing sectarian tensions, traveling across the country to instill the message, “We are brothers.”
But instead of reconciliation, Central African Republic is now awash in fear and distrust. In a country that has suffered from decades of coups and internal conflict since its independence in 1960, the violence has taken a religious turn, with Christians and Muslims killing one another and whole communities taking up arms.
Hundreds have died this month alone. Tens of thousands more have fled their homes. The nation is so precariously divided that diplomats the world over have warned of mass atrocities, even genocide, and sent thousands of international troops to the streets in the hope of preventing them.
“We have to leave this cycle of hate, or the state will fail,” Archbishop Nzapalainga said.
The conflict ripping the country apart revolves around the oldest of motives: a struggle for power. Mostly Muslim rebel forces known as Seleka, or Alliance, overthrew the government in March, ousting President François Bozizé and putting in power the country’s first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia. Since then, Christian militias backed by Mr. Bozizé have tried to overthrow the Muslim alliance.
But the crisis had been building for years, and the religious leaders said the mutual animosity leading Christians and Muslims to attack one another was, at its roots, a manufactured one, deliberately stoked for political ends. Now, they fear it has taken on a life of its own.
…
[Full Story]