From Wounds to Trust: Communities in the Central African Republic Make Peace Sustainable Through Trauma Healing and Dialogue
December 2025
Through counselling, mediation, and reintegration programmes reaching thousands, peacebuilding initiatives are reducing tensions, empowering youth, and restoring trust across conflict-affected areas.
Since 2012, the Central African Republic (CAR) has been gripped by successive cycles of political and security crises, forcing mass displacement within the country and across borders. From the emergence of the ex-S¨¦l¨¦ka rebellion to the rise of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) in 2020, waves of violence have devastated communities and resulted in widespread human rights violations.
The conflict has left behind more than physical destruction. It has fractured social bonds, dismantled community structures, and plunged thousands into what many Central Africans call gbogbolinda¡ªa state of profound spiritual, emotional and psychological distress. As the country rebuilds, one truth has become increasingly clear: peace is impossible without healing.
A joint study conducted in March 2025 by the Ministry of Public Health and Population and the World Health Organization, under a youth-led social cohesion initiative funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), found that 59% of the population is living with mental health disorders, with women and young people most affected. These figures reflect a national trauma that continues to undermine reconciliation and recovery.
Against this backdrop, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is emerging as a core pillar of peacebuilding across CAR. Actions range from supporting the reintegration of ex-combatants to enabling displaced families to return home, from strengthening everyday social cohesion to helping young people participate safely and confidently in political life. By integrating trauma care into peacebuilding, these initiatives help survivors confront pain, rebuild trust, and choose dialogue over violence.
How Healing Youth Transforms Communities
Between 2022 and 2024, in Sibut and Kaga-Bandoro, the PBF-funded ¡°Disarmament of the Heart¡± project, implemented by Danish Church Aid, showed how mental health support can lay the groundwork for reconciliation.
Safe spaces were created to provide gender-sensitive psychosocial care adapted to local culture, enabling hundreds of young people to speak openly about fear, grief and anger¡ªoften for the first time. These centres combined counselling, leadership training, and opportunities for community dialogue, demonstrating how trauma healing can unlock youth potential as peace actors.
More than 800 young people, including 390 girls, received psychosocial support, allowing them to manage war-related trauma and move from isolation to collective action. After participating:
- 88% reported improved psychological well-being, and
- over 75% said they now trust dialogue as an effective way to resolve conflict.
Across communities, youth have begun organizing interfaith football matches, ¡°welcome back¡± markets for returning Muslim families, and mixed peace committees bringing Christian and Muslim neighbours together. These activities have eased tensions, challenged discrimination, and strengthened the foundations of social cohesion.
The impact is confirmed by the study ¡°: Historical Heritage, Culture, and Faith in the Central African Republic¡± ?Carried out by DanChurchAid ?which situates these transformations within wider debates on historical trauma, resilience and the cultural roots of peace.?
From Individual Care to Collective Transformation
Marie Jeanne, 40, embodies the deep personal scars of conflict. She lost her husband to violence in 2014 and fled to Cameroon with her four children. Returning to Bouar in 2022, she faced hostility from her in-laws, who barred her from her late husband¡¯s farmland and attempted to evict her.
Since January 2024, 1,318 people including returnees, host community members, women, and people with disabilities, have received psychosocial support through individual and group counselling in ten prefectures. These efforts are supported by:
- 22 renovated community structures, and
- 64 trained frontline workers,
including mobile clinics and land-dispute dialogue spaces in areas of high return.
Healing Former Fighters, Preventing Renewed Violence
Mental health support is equally crucial in reintegration. The PBF-funded project ¡°Improving Security and Consolidating Peace through Community-Based Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in CAR¡± (2023¨C2025), implemented by UNDP, IOM and UN Women (USD 5,000,000) with the technical and operation support of the MINUSCA, focuses on trauma recovery as the foundation for sustainable reintegration.
In Bambari, Mobaye, Bangassou and Obo, ex-combatants and at-risk youth participate in active-listening sessions and trauma therapy where they process fear, anger and grief; identify triggers for remobilization; and begin restoring trust.
Between 2024 and 2025, 1,187 people, including 750 ex-combatants, received psychosocial support through 86 listening sessions. Socio-cultural and sports activities such as football tournaments, traditional dance competitions and community events, help young people release tensions and reconnect with civilian life.
Together, these interventions ensure that mental health care reaches both civilians and former fighters, linking individual healing, community dialogue and institutional support.
Catalysts for Change: Building a Peace Architecture Where Mental Health Shapes Every Layer
Since 2021, investments from the Peacebuilding Fund have helped transform mental health from a marginal service into a cornerstone of peace.
A joint initiative by UN Women and UNFPA (2021¨C2023) rebuilt national and community-level systems for managing trauma in Bria and Bangassou. It strengthened conflict-sensitive mental health services, established a network of 110 psychosocial agents, and provided care to more than 2,000 people. The project also developed a national protocol for psychosocial care tailored to CAR¡¯s realities, including trauma from armed violence and sexual violence.
To ensure continuity, the project launched ¡°E-Seni ti li¡±, a mobile application enabling self-diagnosis and referral to mental health services.
The PBF-funded ¡°Youth-Led Social Cohesion in CAR¡± initiative, implemented by UNFPA and WHO (2023¨C2025), positions mental health as a foundation for social dialogue and youth participation in Bouar and Bria. The project has achieved significant results in its mental health component:
- Trained 57 health providers in innovative mental health approaches
- Provided free treatment and medication to 248 patients
- Built local referral pathways between health services, religious leaders, women¡¯s groups, NGOs and traditional authorities
Through community awareness initiatives, youth dialogues and group therapy sessions, the project is reducing stigma and transforming beliefs around mental illness¡ªfrom perceptions of ¡°witchcraft¡± to recognition of treatable health conditions.
Healing Minds to Rebuild a Nation
In a country where trauma remains fresh and unresolved, these interventions form the backbone of a long-term peace architecture. They empower individuals to rebuild their lives, help communities overcome division, and strengthen national resilience.
By healing minds as well as rebuilding structures, the Central African Republic is giving itself the chance to imagine, and achieve, a more peaceful future. Sustaining these gains will require continued investment and the integration of mental health services across public policy, community programmes and peacebuilding initiatives.