New Year’s Eve, Stuck in a Church in Bangui

Reuters Churches in Bangui have drawn thousands of Christians seeking refuge amid the conflict.

In the brutally violent week before Christmas, dozens of families poured into a church in Bangui in the Central African Republic, my colleague Carlotta Gall reported last week. Run by Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga, the building had become a small island of refuge in the Central African Republic’s rapidly unraveling capital.

Each day since, hundreds more have arrived, from across the city and other parts of the country. Over a wavering cellphone line, The Lede spoke to one woman preparing to ring in the new year from the crowded lawn in front of the church.

“The people, they have nothing to eat. Only rice. More rice. They are hungry,” said Corinne, who has been at the church since Dec. 19 and preferred to share only her first name. “There are children, pregnant women. We pray out of fear.”

Lynda Lawson Corinne during a field trip as part of her professional training in Australia, a few weeks before she returned to Bangui.

A month ago, Corinne was sitting comfortably in Brisbane, Australia. She had just completed a training program for mining professionals from Africa, sponsored by the Australian government. She had the option of claiming asylum in Australia, something that Saleem H. Ali, the director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, where she studied, said was a common choice for attendees from conflict-ridden countries. But Corinne was determined to return to her family and to help her country, Mr. Ali said by email.

Even as her flight to Bangui was canceled, Corinne persisted in her journey. She took a circuitous route back home via Douala, Cameroon. By the time she was reunited with her family, Bangui was in bloody disarray. The Christian militia had attempted to seize Bangui, prompting Muslim Seleka fighters to retaliate and set Christian neighborhoods on fire â€" sparking more retaliation from Christians and then yet more from Muslims.

“There is nothing to see at my house,” Corinne said at the church, where she now sleeps on the ground. “There is no way I can go there. The rebels burned it.”

Although it is a desperate situation in Bangui, staying in Australia was not an option, she said.

Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press Thousands of angry people flooded the runway of the international airport in Bangui on Tuesday.

“I am with my aunts, my uncles,” she said. “This is my country. I had no one there. No one at all.”

Throughout the brief conversation, more terrified Christian families continued to file onto the church grounds. Corinne said she had spent the day listening to the radio to reports of developments at the Bangui airport.

Thousands of people blocked the runway, demanding aid and the resignation of President Michel Djotodia, who promised in April to bring stability to his country.

“We are capable of doing it, of securing the whole Central African territory, the whole country,” he said, a few weeks into his presidency.