Conflict untangled : the political, social and economic factors behind the Central African Republic ethno-religious conflict

The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying factors of the conflict between Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic (CAR) that started in 2013. It is argued that political factors played an important role in the coup d'état that ousted President Francois Bozize - the event that marked the start of the civil war. Social factors were mainly responsible for how the civil war turned into sectarian violence. Furthermore, it is argued that a number of economic factors did not directly cause the sectarian violence, but instead contributed to the length of the conflict. The way broader factors contributed to the conflict (the CAR's weakened state and lawlessness for instance) are also discussed