After raising almost $2,000 in sponsorship for an incredible 100km ride with the Central African Republic’s national cycling team through the streets of Bangui, the country’s war-torn capital, development worker David de Armey (pictured, left) has won the draw for the top prize in the 2014 Aegis Citycard Cycles Challenge – a Raleigh Revenio Carbon 1, one of the famed bike manufacturer’s carbon fibre racers from its 2015 range.
Operations Director at ‘Water For Good’ – a US-based charity which has been drilling wells and maintaining water pumps in the Central African Republic (CAR) for the last ten years – David undertook the ride to raise funds and awareness for both Water for Good and the Aegis Trust. Aegis is now working with partners in CAR to strengthen peacebuilding in the country, where tensions remain high following severe interreligious violence – which has flared again in just the last few days. Over five thousand people have been killed and more than a million driven from their homes in the country this year.
Biking with Central Africans in Bangui was like reclaiming different parts of the city that had been affected by the civil war,” says David. “All the neighborhoods we biked through – every district, road, street corner – have been marred by tragic events.
“I rode with twenty other cyclists, and I got to have conversations with each participant and hear his or her own impressions and perspectives of the conflict. Each would point out a place where something had happened. ‘This corner is where ex-Seleka shot at street vendors.’ ‘That corner is where a mosque used to stand, but is now just a giant hole in the ground.’ ‘This stretch is where child soldiers attacked national armed forces.’ ‘Muslims used to live in that district, and here people were killed and burned.’
“The city of Bangui and its people are scarred by war, but like a body that is healing, there are also signs of recovery. The Aegis Citycard Cycles Challenge is definitely one of those signs. It was a chance to bring something positive to all of these embattled places — a statement that yes, people are moving.
“We probably passed over 75,000 people as we rode through different neighbourhoods, and astonishment was mixed with cheers of joy from the many children along our route. Despite two crashes, nine flat tyres and a back wheel that fell off one of our ancient machines, the cyclists were proud to be a sign of peace, an element of comfort along streets that are heavily patrolled by armed vehicles, soldiers and police roadblocks. We got many thumbs-up from peacekeepers and the security forces. Though insecurity and palpable tension persist, signs of good days ahead like this are very much welcomed.”
Some members of the cycling team had their own lives disrupted during the sectarian violence of the last two years. Fadimaio Maidida, 19, is the national women’s champion and also a Muslim who has lived in the city throughout the conflict, as the Muslim minority population was increasingly targeted for violence. Despite the trauma her community has faced, she is excited to represent her country through cycling.
Team Trainer Pierre Pythony Kozongo, 48, works for the Department of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture. He has seen the country go through many armed conflicts, but none as bad as this. Yet even at the height of the violence he has not stopped cycling, confident that in a country where professional cyclists are highly respected, not even the worst militia groups would harm them.
Sadly, since the ride there has been a renewed bout of violence in Bangui, highlighting the urgency of efforts to strengthen CAR’s steps towards peace. In spite of this, David looks toward the coming year with a spirit of optimism. “I’m thrilled to have won the Raleigh racer,” he says. “I’ll be riding it in the Central African Republic when we do this all again in 2015.” Now he would just like to secure better equipment for the rest of the CAR team.
The 2014 Aegis Citycard Cycles Challenge was sponsored by Nottingham City Council, Raleigh, Firefly Computers and Bryan Steel, the British Olympic cycling medallist who led a 100km ride from the UK’s National Holocaust Centre on 28 September. (You can read about that ride here.)