• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > World

Armed Groups Massacre 54 Civilians in Central African Republic

  • Muslim children in the town of Bangui in Central African Republic. Sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians has led many to flee.

    Muslim children in the town of Bangui in Central African Republic. Sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians has led many to flee. | Photo: Reuters

Published 24 May 2019
Opinion

Thousands of people have died in the country and a fifth of the 4.5 million population have fled their homes.

An armed militia killed at least 54 civilians in an attack Tuesday in Central African Republic (CAR), as reported by UNICEF in their statement of condemnation. The government of CAR has issued a deadline for the group's leader to give up the perpetrators to the authorities.

RELATED

Child Soldiers Rampant in Africa as NGO Denounces the Unrest

The attack was the most deadly since 14 armed groups agreed to a peace deal in February that was meant to bring stability to a country rocked by violence since 2013, when mainly Muslim Selaka rebels ousted the then president, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militias.

The group 'Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation,' or 3R, attacked a number of villages in the northwest region Pahoua, seeking revenge for the killing of an ethnic Peul, government spokesman Ange Kazagui said at a joint briefing Wednesday with the United Nation's MINUSCA peacekeeping mission.

The government is calling for 3R leader Sidiki Abass to "arrest and hand over those responsible for this massacre to the authorities in the next 72 hours or risk being held personally responsible", Kazagui said.

The bloodshed will further test the peace agreement, which has already come under strain due to disagreements over-representation in the cabinet.

"MINUSCA asks 3R in particular and all the armed groups in general to show strict respect for international human rights and the reconciliation and peace agreement," MINUSCA spokeswoman Uwolowulakana Ikavi-Gbetanou said at the briefing.

The government and rebels expressed optimism when the accord was signed on Feb. 5. But lasting peace is not guaranteed: similar agreements in 2014, 2015 and 2017 all broke down.

The 3R group emerged in late 2015 to protect the minority Peul population, who are mostly Muslim cattle herders, from attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias.

Thousands of people have died because of the unrest in the diamond and gold-producing country, and a fifth of the 4.5 million population have fled their homes.

In one gruesome story, a 77-year-old Spanish nun who was teaching girls how to sew in the country was found almost beheaded in the southwestern town of Nola. According to the Vatican's reports, a bishop said her throat had been slit so deep as to almost behead her. She was taken from her room in the night and nothing was stolen. No groups claimed responsibility for the attack.

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.