The minimum you must know

The Central African Republic is a landlocked former French colony in the center of Africa that has had an internal conflict since 2012. There are around five million people spread around a quarter of a million square miles of mostly equatorial forests and deserts. The country has a reputation outside of Africa for being impoverished, with the lowest GDP per capita in the world. This author is not familiar yet with the country's reputation within Africa.

The Central African Republic is bordered by Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon, which is one of the toughest regions in the world. For instance, Chad is hosting two million refugees from conflicts. Bordering Sudan lost hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur, and together the Congo and Rwanda lost five million lives in one of the most brutal conflicts reportedly in modern history. In a neighborhood like that, clearly the Central African Republic cares deeply about peace.

There have been democratic elections in the Central African Republic since 1992. But there was also a 1997 coup when a substantial physical political conflict developed.

President Faustin Archange Touadera patterned "peace" at the United Nations providing a stark contrast to foreign perceptions of the Central African Republic's government.

The Central African Republic is at peace with all other countries.