14-07-2016 | di COOPI

The Boda market reconciles the community

15 craft shops, 10 shops and a covered structure, in cement, for the sale of vegetables and other food products, a structure for slaughtering meat and a latrine with 6 bathrooms. Thanks to the involvement of local entrepreneurs and suppliers, COOPI has put into operation the commercial structures of Boda, one of the Central African cities that more than others suffered the consequences of the cultural and economic clashes between the two religious majorities, Christian and Muslim- involved first-line since 2012 in a major crisis that hinders peaceful cohabitation.
 
In 2015, a third of the houses were destroyed or severely damaged and the Muslim population of Boda experienced real physical segregation: 8,000 Muslim people were forced to leave their neighborhood to live confined to the city center, deprived of their liberty.
 
COOPI, thanks to the collaboration with the French Embassy in RCA, has immediately started to foster the pacification process among local communities through a project aimed to redevelop the central market and relaunch the Boda shopping area, regarded as a vector of social integration. This allows the locals to re-start trading basic necessities, improving the conditions of food security and social cohesion of the different communities in the city.
 
 

The inauguration of the market took place on June 18th, in the presence of several figures, amonst which: the French Ambassador; the Minister of Social Affairs and Reconciliation; the Minister of Breeding; the administrative authorities of the Lobaye Region; the prefect and the vice-prefect; the mayor; religious authorities of the Muslim and Christian communities of Boda. This event was not only the closing moment of the project (started in September 2015), but also the starting point of a new phase of cohabitation of the two communities in the name of peace, reconciliation and a new social cohesion, based on dialogue and the exchange between the communities of the city of Boda and the surrounding area.