Central African Republic, rebel groups initial a peace deal

February 05, 2019

CAIRO (AP) — Central African Republic's government on Tuesday initialed a peace deal with 14 armed groups following unprecedented talks aimed at ending more than five years of conflict. The agreement represents rare hope for one of the world's poorest nations, where religious and communal fighting erupted in 2013. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a conflict that has sent two people to the International Criminal Court.

"The difficult time starts now, and that is implementing the Khartoum Agreement ... This agreement is crucial for peace," said Herbert Gontran Djono Ahaba, speaking on behalf of the rebels. The talks that began Jan. 24 in Sudan's capital were the first-ever direct dialogue among the warring parties.

Representatives of the rebels shook hands with President Faustin Archange Touadera and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir after they initialed the deal. "Now is the time for us to turn a new page, the page of Central African Republic which has reconciled with itself, in order to preserve its dignity," Touadera said, adding: "We do not have the right to disappoint."

Details of the agreement have not been announced. The head of Central African Republic's government delegation said they will announce them after the formal signing back home in the capital, Bangui. A date has not been set.

"I'm very happy to see this day," African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said. The AU facilitated the talks, supported by the United Nations. "Concessions should be made, and we should all accept each other, and this page should be closed, the page of violence and destruction."

The fighting has carried the high risk of genocide, the U.N. has warned. The conflict began when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in Bangui. Largely Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back. Scores of mosques were burned. Religious leaders were killed. Many Muslims fled the country after mobs decapitated and dismembered some in the streets.

The vicious fighting in a country known more for coups than religious violence was so alarming that Pope Francis made a bold visit in 2015, removing his shoes and bowing his head at the Central Mosque in the last remaining Muslim neighborhood of the capital.

"Together we say 'no' to hatred," the pope said. The violence has never disappeared, intensifying and spreading last year after a period of relative peace as armed groups battled over lands rich in gold, diamonds and uranium.

In a grim report last year marking five years of conflict, the U.N. children's agency said fighters often target civilians rather than each other, attacking health facilities and schools, mosques and churches and camps for displaced people. At least half of the more than 640,000 people displaced are children, it said, and thousands are thought to have joined armed groups, often under pressure.

A majority of Central African Republic's 2.9 million people urgently need humanitarian support, the Norwegian Refugee Council said last month as the peace talks began. Last month the chief of Central African Republic's soccer federation appeared at the ICC for the first time since he was arrested last year in France on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona is accused of leading the anti-Balaka for at least a year early in the fighting.

In November a Central African Republic militia leader and lawmaker, Alfred Yekatom, made his first ICC appearance, accused of crimes including murder, torture and using child soldiers. He allegedly commanded some 3,000 fighters in a predominantly Christian militia in and around the capital early in the fighting. He was arrested last year after firing gunshots in parliament.

So far no Seleka fighters have been publicly targeted by the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo on Central African Republic for a year but raised the possibility that it could be lifted earlier, as the government has long urged.

UN report shows hundreds of Central African Republic abuses

May 30, 2017

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A sweeping new United Nations report identifies hundreds of human rights violations in Central African Republic since 2003 that may amount to war crimes, including massacres, gang rapes and entire villages burned to the ground.

Tuesday's report comes amid growing fears that the country terrorized by multiple armed groups is once again slipping into the sectarian bloodshed that left thousands dead between late 2013 and 2015. U.N. investigators highlight more than 600 abuses over a 12-year period, and are urging both prosecution and the creation of a truth and reconciliation commission. While the report refrains from identifying the alleged perpetrators unless they are already the subject of sanctions or an arrest warrant, those identities are known and are being kept in a confidential database, officials said.

"In documenting the violations and abuses of the past, we hope to galvanize national and international efforts to protect and bring justice to the victims of these crimes," said Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the U.N. special representative for the country.

The International Criminal Court is already examining abuses dating back to 2003 in Central African Republic. While the U.N. report does not characterize the worst sectarian violence as genocide, it does "identify facts which may warrant further investigation to determine whether the elements of the crime may have been met."

Central African Republic exploded into violence in late 2013 after mostly Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition terrorized civilians in the capital until the Seleka leader stepped down from power. A mainly Christian militia that arose in opposition to the rebels then carried out horrific violence against Muslim civilians in retaliation, even though few of them supported Seleka in the first place.

At one point, Muslims were stoned to death with rocks by mobs in the street, at times decapitated and mutilated. Those fleeing for their lives in truck convoys to the country's north and beyond to Chad were slain by mobs in many cases.

Violence ebbed with the installation of a civilian transitional government and with the arrival of U.N. peacekeepers who replaced a regional force. The country held fairly peaceful national elections in 2016, though this year has seen an explosion of sectarian conflict in areas previously untouched by such tensions such as the southeast.

The fragile peace is in many ways maintained by separation. Many towns no longer have Muslim communities after people fled and never returned. Mosques have been destroyed. More than 500,000 people remain internally displaced while others remain in neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Congo, officials said.

While Tuesday's report urges justice to be done, it also offers a grim view of the challenges: Armed groups still control more than half the country. Most courts were looted and destroyed during the rampant violence by armed groups.

"The number of police personnel, their equitable deployment across the country and the resources available to them, considering the country's vast geography, are wanting," the report says. "Magistrates appointed to the courts in many of the provinces and other judiciary personnel often choose to remain in Bangui because of insecurity and a lack of amenities for their work and welfare. Virtually all the country's lawyers are based in Bangui."

Any criminal proceedings must include those equipped to work with sexual violence survivors, the report says. More than 650 victims were reported between December 2013 and July 2014 alone. In one case, a single victim was raped by up to 20 perpetrators, the report says.

It references the recent case of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre as one possible example. Habre was convicted last year of crimes against humanity in a special court set up Senegal. The charges included rape and forced sexual slavery carried out by subordinates under the legal principle of "command responsibility."

Tuesday's report says the violence committed by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels could constitute crimes against humanity, along with the retaliatory violence carried out by the mostly Christian anti-Balaka against Muslim civilians.

A "campaign of killings and persecution" by government soldiers against civilians in the north-central and northwest regions between 2006 and 2009 also could constitute crimes against humanity, it says.

In Central African Republic, refugees await vote results

February 19, 2016

KAGA-BANDORO, Central African Republic (AP) — It's been more two years since Therese Waima fled for her life with her five children after Muslim rebels shot her husband to death. While adjusted to a new normal inside a sprawling camp home to thousands of others, she still dreams of going home.

Yet even as she cast a ballot this past week in Central African Republic's historic presidential runoff vote, she knows it is still too dangerous to return to her village, where she wants to resume selling peanuts and manioc to support her family.

"I hope to leave one day, but we can't right now so long as there is still insecurity," she says as she washes laundry in a plastic bucket outside the thatched hut where her family stays with thousands of other Christians in the town of Kaga-Bandoro.

Sunday's election, even with its problems, marked a rare success in a country where more leaders have come to power through coups than through elections since independence from France in 1960. Though there was no major violence, many here in this town 330 kilometers (200 miles) north of the capital, Bangui, know the guns haven't disappeared altogether.

"We ask the new president to make disarmament his first priority," said Fidel Magonda, 48, as he collected cornmeal and split peas at a food distribution organized by the U.N. World Food Program and its local partners this week.

The church pastor has spent the past two years at a displacement camp with his wife and seven children in Kaga-Bandoro after Seleka fighters burned their home to the ground. And his concerns underscore the challenges that will face whoever ultimately wins the presidency: simmering tensions in the north, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced not only inside the country but living in camps in neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Congo.

The north of Central African Republic has long been a fief of Muslim rebel groups, each with its own four-letter French acronym. In 2013, several of them joined together as Seleka — the word for alliance in the local Sango language. They ultimately overthrew the president of a decade but their leader was forced to step aside after rebels committed scores of atrocities against Christian civilians during their brutal reign in power.

By late 2013, a largely Christian militia known as the anti-Balaka had arisen in opposition to Seleka forces, carrying out brutal attacks on Muslim civilians. The conflict has displaced nearly 1 million people — about half internally including those who have fled to Kaga-Bandoro from surrounding villages in the countryside.

"There needs to be a base level of security," said Lewis Mudge, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. "People need to have the security and the confidence to start to regain their lives. And most people that I am speaking to know that is not going to come simply with an election. The elections are not going to be the silver bullet that everyone wants them to be."

Hundreds of Seleka fighters regrouped here in Kaga-Bandoro along with Muslim civilians after fleeing the capital two years ago. Many ex-Seleka have reformed into a new group known by its French acronym — FRPC, or Popular Front for the Rebirth of Central African Republic — under the leadership of a former top Seleka official named Noureddine Adam.

Adam is believed to be in neighboring Chad despite being on a U.N. sanctions list that includes a travel ban and a freeze on his assets. These days his followers here are more likely to wear jeans and sandals than military gear.

His followers say they want to live in peace with Christians and the refugees should feel safe going home. But he says his men are tired of the country's north being marginalized by the government in Bangui, a complaint that has fueled rebellions long before the Seleka overthrow of the government.

Moussa Aboua Maoloud Baret, a local leader of the FRPC, says he sees little difference between the two candidates — both Christians, both former prime ministers who served under governments that didn't address the problems of the north.

"We are awaiting the results of this election that was imposed by the international community," he says. "We have no problems with the Christians — there are plenty of churches here and none have been destroyed. But we don't want to be marginalized. That is the problem."

Associated Press journalist Andrew Drake contributed to this report.

Central African Republic voters seek leader to end chaos

February 14, 2016

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic went ahead with a presidential runoff vote Sunday that many hope will solidify the country's tentative peace after more than two years of sectarian fighting left thousands dead and nearly 1 million people displaced including most of the capital's Muslim population.

Armored U.N. personnel carriers roamed the streets of Bangui as residents headed to the polls not long after sunrise. Some 2,000 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed in the capital while 8,000 others were working to secure the vote in the largely anarchic provinces.

Residents said they planned to set aside painful memories of the chaos that intensified in late 2013 when Christian militia fighters known as the anti-Balaka attacked Bangui, unleashing cycles of retaliatory violence with mostly Muslim Seleka fighters. At the height of the violence people were killed and dismembered by mobs in the capital's streets. More than 460,000 people fled for their lives to neighboring countries, many aboard trucks that came under attack even as refugees tried to leave.

The conflict at the time was a political dispute over who would lead Central African Republic, but it divided communities among religious fault lines: Hundreds of mosques and churches were destroyed, interreligious marriages unraveled. A new spasm of violence late last year effectively barricaded most of Bangui's remaining Muslims inside the PK5 neighborhood for several months.

Now voters are being given a choice of two former prime ministers — both promising to unite the country and bring the peace people here desperately want. Front-runner Anicet Georges Dologuele received about 24 percent in the first round and also was endorsed by the third-place finisher. However, Faustin Archange Touadera has strong grassroots support after placing second in the December ballot.

Noel Poutou, 74, is a lifelong resident of the PK5 neighborhood, never venturing outside it over the last two years. Even when bloody stones on the ground marked where fellow Muslims had been beaten to death by mobs, he stayed.

"Everything has a beginning and an end," he said with his wooden cane at his side, dressed in a deep green traditional Muslim tunic and white prayer hat. "For me, this is the end of the crisis. Everyone here has lost loved ones and friends. I ask God to bring peace so that people can forget and become a family here again."

Voters lining up at 6 a.m. in the Fatima district of the capital said they too hoped the vote would bring a definitive end to the violence. Tensions, though, were high as some were momentarily blocked from voting because they did not have photo identification along with their voting cards.

Such ID was not required in the first round of balloting, and many frustrated voters said they had lost their papers along with their homes during the latest wave of violence late last year as Seleka fighters attacked predominantly Christian neighborhoods.

"I've been standing here in line since 5 a.m.," said Anne-Marie Betaboye as she clutched her Catholic rosary beads in her right hand. "My house was burned to the ground; I'm living on the grounds of the church."

Authorities said they were talking to neighborhood officials about finding a solution. Other voters said their names did not appear on the list at the polling station where they voted during the first round in December.

A period of relative peace has taken hold in the months since Pope Francis pushed aside suggestions it was too dangerous to visit Central African Republic. The pope set an example for many, residents said, by coming to PK5 in November to meet with Muslim community leaders even as peacekeepers manned sniper points from the minarets in case the pope's entourage came under attack.

Sunday's vote, which was delayed several times, is designed to bring an end to the transitional government set up two years ago. Its formation was the culmination of a chaotic period when the last elected president was overthrown by rebels, then the rebel leader forced to step aside as his fighters carried out atrocities against civilians.

And yet even as conditions improve, tens of thousands are casting their ballots from refugee camps in neighboring Cameroon and Chad. Two of the most prominent anti-Balaka leaders are on the ballot, running for legislative seats.

Junior Yangangoussou, 30, a finance administer in Bangui, acknowledges it's a delicate situation. While voting day is expected to go smoothly, things could become tense once the ballots are counted, he says.

"We are somewhat afraid of the results, and we are praying to God for peace," he said. "The country has not been disarmed. Weapons are everywhere in every district of Central African Republic."

Red Cross: Wounded trapped in C. African Republic capital

October 01, 2015

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Aid officials pleaded for access to the neighborhoods of Central African Republic's treacherous capital on Wednesday, saying that sectarian clashes between rivaling Christian and Muslim militias make it too dangerous to help the wounded and to recover bodies.

Underscoring the chaotic security situation, the U.N. reported that two of its peacekeepers had been severely wounded. The violence marked the second attack of its kind Wednesday as the U.N. forces worked to take down roadblocks that had been put up by militants, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General.

At least 42 deaths have been confirmed in Bangui since sectarian clashes erupted on Saturday, including a teenage boy who was decapitated. However, the head of the national Red Cross told The Associated Press that death toll is far from complete as its workers have not been able to get into some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods.

"I'm calling on people to let the Red Cross circulate and do their humanitarian work because the organization is impartial, neutral and non-political," Antoine Mbao-Bogo said. "As of yesterday there were still many barriers and tensions were high, but people should know we are here for them."

The Red Cross' difficulties highlight how quickly and severely the situation has deteriorated in Central African Republic, which has undergone waves of deadly sectarian fighting since Muslim rebels in early 2013 overthrew the president of a decade. In that violence by Muslim and Christian fighters, untold thousands of civilians were killed, and tens of thousands of Muslims fled the country for their lives. Even convoys of Muslims trying to reach neighboring Chad were frequently fired upon by militants, killing would-be refugees.

A measure of stability was achieved in mid-2014 with the arrival of a U.N. peacekeeping force and the forced migration of most of Bangui's Muslim civilian population. The establishment of a transitional government, headed by President Catherine Samba-Panza, who was charged with leading the country to elections on Oct. 18.

But the slaying last week of a Muslim man whose body was left near a mosque in Bangui re-ignited violence between Muslim and Christian militias in the capital. Samba-Panza rushed home from the U.N. General Assembly in New York because of the violence and the latest fighting is expected to derail plans for the upcoming elections. The violence also has raised doubts about Pope Francis will maintain his scheduled visit to Bangui in late November.

Foreign Minister Samuel Rangba told the General Assembly that Bangui has seen a "horrendous spike" in displaced people, with more than 30,000 now. Many of the people are returning to a squalid refugee camp at the airport that authorities have been trying to dismantle.

Rangba called on the U.N. Security Council to consider lifting restrictions on the training and equipping of his country's military, and he asked for a stronger mandate for the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The concerns about safe access to Bangui's neighborhoods have been echoed by Doctors Without Borders, which said wounded people had been arriving in many cases on foot. The group's ambulances also have been unable to circulate as the capital had become too dangerous.

"Given the situation around town, the number of wounded reaching our medical teams seems strangely low," said Emmanuel Lampaert, the group's head of mission in CAR. "Unfortunately, we think right now many people have no way to reach the emergency medical care they need. They cannot safely move to health facilities, and we cannot move out to reach them."

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed.

UN: More child abuse cases possible in C. African Republic

May 01, 2015

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations on Friday said "it is possible, it's horribly possible" that more allegations of sexual abuse of children by French and other soldiers in Central African Republic could come to light as investigations continue.

A U.N. human rights spokesman reminded reporters in Geneva that conditions where the alleged abuse occurred last year were chaotic, with thousands of displaced people taking refuge at the capital's airport and under protection of French and other troops.

Rupert Colville said U.N. officials now have to see what French authorities will come up with as their investigation continues. He called the allegations "abhorrent" and "utterly odious." "Longer term, only the French can do this investigation ... fully," he said.

Residents of the camp for displaced persons have told The Associated Press that French soldiers tasked with protecting civilians during months of vicious sectarian violence in the country had sexually abused boys as young as 9 years old.

France's investigations follow an initial U.N. investigation into the allegations a year ago. All of the probes came to light Wednesday when a report in the Guardian newspaper pushed officials to publicly acknowledge the allegations.

The accusations were made before a U.N. peacekeeping force arrived in the country in September. The U.N. has said one of its human rights workers leaked information about the U.N. investigation to French authorities last year. Swede Anders Kompass has been suspended and is under internal investigation. The U.N. says the leak was a breach of protocol, with the leak including names of victims and witnesses.

Paula Donovan, whose group AIDS-Free World has been looking into abuse by peacekeeping personnel, has said children also accused soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea. The U.N. on Friday said it didn't know whether the accusations against soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea were being pursued but that the French investigation might cover them.

The deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Farhan Haq, told reporters in New York that troops from those countries did not join the U.N. peacekeeping mission. Chad withdrew before the U.N. mission came, and the inclusion of Equatorial Guinea troops was not approved by U.N. peacekeeping officials, Haq said.

The U.N. Security Council has called on the African Union and troop-contributing countries to investigate reported human rights abuses by forces present in Central African Republic before the U.N. mission arrived, he said.

U.N. officials in Geneva also said that after hearing of the allegations, the U.N. worked with partners to ensure that the children received medical and "psychosocial" care, and that social workers followed up regularly with the children for weeks.

The children are safe now, Christophe Boulierac of UNICEF told reporters. France's president has promised tough punishment for any soldier found guilty. French military officials have refused to say whether the soldiers have been identified or whether any were still serving in Central African Republic.

"This is incredibly important, not just as a matter of accountability, but also as deterrence," the U.N. human rights office said Friday. "There have been far too many incidents of peacekeeping troops engaged in such acts, whether within U.N. peacekeeping forces, or - as in this case - forces that are operating independently."

Central African Republic: nearly all mosques destroyed

March 20, 2015

By: Agencies

Source: Cii Broadcasting

Almost all of the 436 mosques in the Central African Republic have been destroyed by months of vicious fighting between Christians and Muslims, the US ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday, calling the devastation “kind of crazy, chilling.”

Samantha Power spoke to reporters after a Security Council visit last week to the country. She expressed concern about an upcoming possible security vacuum as European Union and French forces pull out and a UN peacekeeping force is still not at full strength.

At least 5,000 people have been killed since Central African Republic exploded into unprecedented sectarian violence in December 2013. Nearly 1 million of the Texas-sized country’s 4.5 million residents have been displaced. Many of those who have fled are Muslim.

Power said 417 of the country’s mosques have been destroyed. She visited the one remaining Muslim neighborhood in the capital, Bangui, and described the residents as “a terrified population.”

Some Muslim women, afraid of leaving the community while wearing their veils, are choosing to give birth in their homes instead of hospitals, the ambassador said.

UN peacekeepers, French forces and a European Union military operation have tried to calm the violence. But Power said the last of the EU force of about 750 troops left the Central African Republic over the weekend, shortly after the Security Council visit.

“That’s a big dropoff in capability,” she said. Meanwhile, the French forces have announced a “substantial drawdown” by the end of this year. France had sent 2,000 troops to its former colony.

The UN peacekeeping force remains at about 80 percent of its planned strength of about 10,000, Power said. The UN secretary-general last month asked for more than 1,000 additional peacekeepers, and Power said the council is “very favorably disposed” to the request.

She said the combined forces have “averted a worst-case scenario,” but the country’s roving armed groups remain armed. She called that a deep cause for concern and said disarmament is a “huge priority.”

Source: Muslim Village.
Link: http://muslimvillage.com/2015/03/20/74094/central-african-republic-nearly-mosques-destroyed/.

Central African Republic: militia lays down arms

November 30, 2014

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — A Christian militia in Central African Republic is abandoning its armed fight and transforming itself into a political party, according to a top official in the group.

Central African Republic has been rocked by violence since the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition toppled the president last year. Widespread human rights abuses committed by Seleka led to the formation of the anti-Balaka Christian militia, unleashing sectarian fighting that has forced hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians to flee to neighboring countries.

As a U.N. peacekeeping force tries to restore stability, the former Muslim rebels have largely been confined to their bases, but Christian fighters have continued to carry out attacks. Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, national coordinator of the anti-Balaka, announced Saturday that the militia would, from now on, only fight through political means. He said any member who carries out an attack will be brought to justice.

"I can assure you that the fighters have decided to turn this dark page of history that we have all lived through in this country," he said a conference of militia members. "No anti-Balaka should use his weapons."

The new party, the Central African Party for Unity and Development, will continue to press the militia's demands through political means, he said. Those include the release of militia members in prison and the reinstatement of the army salaries of militiamen who used to be in the military.

AP: More than 5,000 dead in C. African Republic

September 12, 2014

GUEN, Central African Republic (AP) — More than 5,000 people have died in sectarian violence in Central African Republic since December, according to an Associated Press tally, suggesting that a U.N. peacekeeping mission approved months ago is coming too late for thousands.

The AP found at least 5,186 people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians, based on a count of bodies and numbers gathered from survivors, priests, imams and aid workers in more than 50 of the hardest-hit communities. That's more than double the death toll of at least 2,000 cited by the United Nations in April, when it approved the mission. There has been no official count since.

U.N. peacekeepers prepare to take over from African forces on Monday, bringing about 2,000 extra troops to the country. It will fall short of the almost 7,000 more that were authorized in April, with the rest expected by early 2015. Yet violence in the Central African Republic has only spread since.

"The international community said it wanted to put a stop to the genocide that was in the making. But months later, the war has not stopped," said Joseph Bindoumi, president of the Central African Human Rights League. "On the contrary, it has gotten worse."

The U.N. is not recording civilian deaths on its own, unlike in Iraq or Afghanistan, and has cited figures gathered by the local Red Cross. It has taken months simply to gather troops from different countries for the mission launch on Sept. 15, especially with poor infrastructure in landlocked terrain, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General.

"Mobilizing troops for peacekeeping mission takes time because it's not like they're waiting in New York for us," Dujarric said Wednesday. "We have to go knock on doors for troops, for equipment, helicopters..."

Many deaths in this country of about 4.6 million were never officially counted, especially in a vast, remote swath of the west that is still dangerous and can barely be reached in torrential rains. Other deaths were overlooked by overwhelmed aid workers but registered at mosques and at private Christian funerals. Even the AP tally is almost certainly a fraction of the true death toll.

The conflict started when Muslim rebels captured the capital last March and killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Christians. When Christian militias forced the rebels to withdraw in late January, they killed as they went.

In the tiny, mostly Christian village of Nzakoun, the rebels set ablaze more than two dozen houses in early February and then went door-to-door. One 13-year-old boy, Maximin Lassananyant, stumbled out of his hut into the darkness and hid for two days in the bush, petrified. He left only when other survivors found him and told him it was time to come home and bury his family.

Maximin's hands still shake as he tries to write down their names, and he cannot bring himself to say them aloud. A village chief has printed the names of 22 buried victims on a weathered piece of notebook paper. Maximin's mother, Rachel, is No. 11 on the list of females, and his 5-year-old sister, Fani, is No. 13. His 7-year-old brother Boris is on the list of males.

It was only a matter of time before Christian militias took revenge and in turn killed thousands of Muslims. Muslims make up about 15 percent of the country's population, and Christians 50 percent. In the town of Guen, Christian fighters stormed a house where dozens of Muslim men and boys had sought refuge, according to survivors. The fighters herded the Muslims to a shady lawn beneath two large mango trees, ordered them to lie on their stomachs and shot them, one by one. The 43 people dead included two 11-year-old boys.

The lives of three Muslims in town were spared: They transported the bludgeoned bodies to two mass graves on a wooden stretcher. A villager named Abakar lost four sons between the ages of 11 and 16, and sobs so hard at the thought of his boys awaiting death that he cannot speak.

"Each night before I go to sleep I pray to God that I don't have nightmares about that day," he chokes out, too afraid to give his full name in case the militants come back. Edmond Beina, the local leader of a Christian militia, is unrepentant. Everyone killed that day was a Muslim rebel, he says. Even the children.

The violence is now bubbling up in previously stable corners of the Central African Republic, hitting both Christians and Muslims. In Bambari, northeast of the capital, at least 149 people were killed in June and July alone, according to witnesses. In the Mbres area, Muslim rebels left at least 34 people dead in August.

In the tiny enclave of Boda, there are grieving fathers everywhere. Abakar Hissein, a Muslim man, has lost two sons, both shot to death — Ahmat earlier this year in Bangui and Ali on Aug. 20 in Boda. His wife has been missing for five months and does not know Ali is dead.

"Somehow I was able to carry his body back in my own arms, but it was very hard for me," he said. "I was truly in shock." Even in death, there is no peace for the victims. Earlier this summer, a Muslim man was buried at a cemetery in Boda, just a mile away from the zone where Muslims are barricaded.

Later that evening, after the sun set, his body was dug up from the ground and set on fire.

Associated Press writer Steve Niko in Boda, Central African Republic and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Central African Republic names first Muslim prime minister

Sun Aug 10, 2014

The Central African Republic (CAR) has named its first Muslim prime minister in a bid to end more than a year of conflict in the country.

Mahamat Kamoun, a former adviser to interim President Catherine Samba-Panza, was appointed by a presidential decree on Sunday, according to an announcement on the state radio.

Kamoun will lead a transitional government that will be tasked with implementing a truce agreed last month between the representatives of the mostly Muslim Seleka group and armed Christians.

The two sides signed the tentative ceasefire in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, pledging to end the hostilities.

Kamoun is now facing the demanding task of revitalizing a political transition aimed at ending the deadly violence in the Central African Republic.

The African country descended into chaos last December, when Christian armed groups launched coordinated attacks against the Seleka group that toppled the government in March 2013.

On December 5, France invaded its former colony after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

In March 2014, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said almost all of more than 100,000 Muslims once residing in the capital, Bangui, had fled the violence perpetrated by the armed Christians.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/10/374824/car-names-first-muslim-prime-minister/.

C African Republic at risk of genocide, says group

June 24, 2014

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — In the early hours of Monday morning, a Christian militia swept down on the village of Ardo-Djobi near Bambari in the Central African Republic killing 18 Muslims of the Fulani ethnicity. Just a few days earlier, Muslim gunmen had attacked Christians in the nearby village of Liwa and killed 21.

The tit-for-tat attacks against rival religious groups in Central African Republic threaten to create the conditions for a genocide reminiscent of Bosnia in the 1990s and requires swift efforts by the government and the international community to stop the violence, said a new report by the International Federation for Human Rights.

The 88-page report details the atrocities committed by both sides in the impoverished country and urged the re-establishment of a legal and penal system to stop the wave of crime and violence and to begin trying those behind the massacres.

"The leaders of the violence and its perpetrators of mass human rights violations are known, we have proof and the government and international community have to take this opportunity and arrest them and end the organized violence," said Florent Geel, the director of the federation's Africa Desk, lamenting the lack of jails or security for judges in the country.

The Central African Republic has been rocked by unrest since March 2013 when a largely Muslim alliance of rebel groups known as the Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize. More than a million people, nearly a quarter of the population, have been displaced by the violence pitting Muslim rebels against Christian militias known as the anti-Balaka.

"Seleka and anti-Balaka forces mirror one another in the horror of the acts that they have perpetrated in the context of a conflict that has become so vile that more people are killed than injured," warned the report, which was researched with two local human rights organizations between the summer of 2013 and February 2014.

After the Seleka were forced out of the capital and into the northern and eastern parts of the country, enclaves of besieged Muslims civilians were left at the mercy of the anti-Balaka militias, who soon switched their targets from just those allied to the rebels to all Muslims.

The report's investigators discovered that the militias were in many cases led by members of the former government military and organized by politicians close to the deposed president. One militia leader told researchers "they all have to leave or die."

Before the conflict, there were some 800,000 Muslims in Central African Republic and now only about 20,000 remain, scattered around in 16 different enclaves surrounded by hostile militias. It is a situation reminiscent of Bosnia in the 1990s when Serbs attempted to ethnically cleanse Muslim areas, said the report.

There are currently 5,000 African troops and 2,000 French troops in the country which have largely taken over the role of maintaining order, following the disintegration of the government's army. Aside from France, the report said the global community has largely been indifferent to the plight of the country.

The key to halting this cycle of violence is to end the impunity of those behind them through the restoration of the country's justice system, said the report. Despite the installation of President Catherine Samba-Panza after the Seleka was pushed out of the capital, there has been little evidence of a central authority and even the most brazen crimes go unpunished. Militia leaders arrested by international forces are soon at large again, said the report. It recommends the creation of an interim legal system — including building functional jails.

Help may come with a new 12,000-strong U.N. force set to start arriving in September, but even that number may not be enough, said Geel of human rights organization. He said Central African Republic "could become a sanctuary for armed groups, instability and mercenaries so it has to be fixed quickly."

French fight Muslim rebels in C. African Republic

May 24, 2014

BAMBARI, Central African Republic (AP) — French forces in Central African Republic fired mortars and exchanged sustained gunfire Saturday with Muslim rebels who controlled the country until earlier this year.

The substantial engagement by the French in the central town of Bambari included targeting and destroying a rebel vehicle by firing on it from a Gazelle helicopter. French forces fired warning shots and mortars as two rebel vehicles approached a bridge in the town, said a French military officer on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

The rebel forces maintain the French forces overreacted, saying they had only crossed the bridge to relieve a small unit they had at a checkpoint down the road. Many local residents had earlier demonstrated against the French forces and blocked the bridge to prevent them from passing.

The alliance of rebel groups known as Seleka was forced from power in January nearly a year after its fighters overthrew the president. Christian militias have said they are seeking revenge for atrocities committed during Seleka's rule. The sectarian violence has left thousands dead and forced nearly 1 million people to flee their homes.

The exchange Saturday shows that former Seleka rebels, who have been in disarray since they were forced from power, have not been defeated and may be gaining strength. Hundreds of the Muslim fighters had gathered more than two weeks ago to choose Gen. Joseph Zindeko as their new leader. He was once a commander of a rebel base in the capital, Bangui. At that time, the rebels said they intended to create a political wing so they can participate in reconciliation talks.

Around 2,000 French troops and nearly 5,000 African peacekeepers are trying to stabilize Central African Republic, a country about the size of Texas. Last month, the U.N. Security Council authorized a nearly 12,000-strong peacekeeping force to bolster the troops already in the country to protect civilians, though the U.N. force is not expected to be operational until September.

1,300 Muslims leave C. African Republic capital

April 27, 2014

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Heavily armed peacekeepers escorted some of the last remaining Muslims out of Central African Republic's volatile capital on Sunday, trucking more than 1,300 people who for months had been trapped by violent Christian militants.

Within minutes of the convoy's departure, an angry swarm of neighbors descended upon the mosque in a scene of total anarchy. Tools in hand, they swiftly dismantled and stole the loudspeaker once used for the call to prayer and soon stripped the house of worship of even its ceiling fan blades.

One man quickly scrawled "Youth Center" in black marker across the front of the mosque. Others mockingly swept the dirt from the ground in front of the building with brooms and shouted "We have cleaned Central African Republic of the Muslims!"

"We didn't want the Muslims here and we don't want their mosque here anymore either," said Guy Richard, 36, who loads baggage onto trucks for a living, as he and his friends made off with pieces of the mosque.

Armed Congolese peacekeepers stood watch but did not fire into the air or attempt to stop the looting. Soon teams of thieves were stripping the metal roofs of nearby abandoned Muslim businesses in the PK12 neighborhood of Bangui. "Pillage! Pillage!" children cried as they helped cart away wood and metal.

"The Central Africans have gone crazy, pillaging a holy place," said Congolese peacekeeper Staff Sgt. Pety-Pety, who refused to give his first name, as the mosque came under attack from militants. The anti-Balaka fighters showed up in their trademark wigs and hats with animal horns, donned in the amulets they believe protect them from the enemy's bullets.

Sunday's exodus further partitions the country, a process that has been underway since January, when a Muslim rebel government gave up power nearly a year after overthrowing the president of a decade.

The United Nations has described the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Muslims as "ethnic cleansing." While previous groups have been taken to neighboring Chad, Sunday's convoys were headed to two towns in the north on the Central African Republic side of the border.

Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis adviser for Amnesty International, said the people evacuated Sunday had lived in daily fear for months. "It's tragic and inexcusable that the situation was allowed to fall apart so that in the end evacuation was the only way to save people's lives," she said. "Much more should have been done to prevent ethnic cleansing in December and January, before tens of thousands of Muslims had fled."

The long-chaotic country's political crisis has prompted fears of genocide since it first intensified in December when Christian militants stormed the capital in an attempt to overthrow the Muslim rebel government. They soon began attacking Muslim civilians accused of having collaborated with the much despised rebels.

The rebel leader-turned-president ultimately resigned, and mob killings of Muslims and mutilation of their bodies took place on a near-daily basis in Bangui earlier this year. Tens of thousands of Muslims were escorted to safety in neighboring Chad, though earlier convoys were fraught with violence. Militants lined the streets and attacked departing trucks, at one point beating a man to death after he fell from his vehicle.

The violence against Muslims has drawn international concern, prompting the world's largest bloc of Islamic countries to send a 14-delegate fact-finding mission to Central African Republic. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation says delegates will be in the capital for three days starting Tuesday.

In an effort to avoid chaos, Sunday's convoy had been scheduled to depart at dawn, not long after men prayed in the mosque for the last time and lightning flickered in the dark sky. It took hours, though, for the families to load up their wares, from plastic jugs for water to bicycles, and even satellite dishes and chairs. In starting a new life in an unknown city, many said they were bringing anything of value that they could sell there to make money.

Tonga Djobo, 75, in a long flowing gown, prayer cap and orthopedic shoes, steadied himself with a stick he used to prod cattle that also doubled as a cane. He said he first came to Central African Republic 47 years ago from neighboring Chad.

Today would be the last day of his life he would spend in Bangui, he declared, joyously pumping his fists in the air. Meanwhile, his wife and family carted their wares all wrapped in bright wax-print fabrics to their assigned truck and waited to board.

With his teeth caked in slivers of cola nuts, the elderly cattle herder said he had tried to climb aboard earlier departing convoys but there had not been enough space. "I leave with a heavy heart but we have been chased from here," he said. "The things I have seen these last few months — even an unborn baby cut from his dead mother's womb. These Christian militia fighters are barbarians."

Each family was assigned a truck number and given a pass that they handed over as their names were called from the list. One by one, the families climbed up wooden ladders into the open air transport trucks where they sat on their belongings. Some of the men sat closest to the edge and sported bows and arrows for self-defense, while others wore machete sheaths slung across their backs.

African peacekeepers from the mission, known as MISCA, along with French forces stood watch along the route out of Bangui. Adama Djilda, 45, said her 7-month-old son Zakariah had now spent more than half his life trapped inside the PK12 neighborhood. As she breastfed him early Sunday while awaiting a truck to board, she said she didn't care which town the peacekeepers took her as long as she got out of Bangui.

Four months ago, she said, the Christian militia fighters gunned down her husband while he was farming in his field, leaving her a widow and mother of seven. For months now the family has slept restlessly in constant fear of grenade attacks in the neighborhood.

Awaiting her departure, she said: "Only God knows how much we have suffered here."

Associated Press writer Steve Niko contributed to this report.

UN approves force for Central African Republic

April 10, 2014

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously approved a nearly 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force for Central African Republic, which has been torn by mounting violence between Christians and Muslims.

The 10,000 U.N. troops and 1,800 police will take over from 5,000 African Union soldiers — but not until Sept. 15. A separate 2,000-strong French force in the Central African Republic was authorized to use "all necessary means" to support the new U.N. force.

Central African Republic has been in chaos since a March 2013 coup, when mostly Muslim rebels seized power and launched a brutal regime. Christian militiamen attacked rebel strongholds in early December. As the rebel government crumbled in January, the Christian militiamen stepped up the violence, forcing tens of thousands of Muslims to flee.

France, the country's former colonial power, took the lead in mobilizing international support to address the crisis but its ambassador, Gerard Araud, said the security situation remains volatile. "African Union troops supported by the French troops are doing tremendous work to protect the civilian population but it's not yet enough," Araud said after the vote. "The resolution we have just adopted is a key turning point."

Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, Central African Republic's foreign minister, who urged the council last month to send U.N. peacekeepers, thanked members for adopting the resolution, saying it "lays the foundation for a solution and a way out of the crisis."

The resolution expresses serious concern at multiple violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by both former Seleka elements and anti-Balaka militia including killings, torture and sexual violence against women and children.

It "demands that all militias and armed groups put aside their arms, cease all forms of violence and destabilizing activities immediately and release children from their ranks." The Security Council wanted a strong mandate and the resolution authorizes the new U.N. force to protect civilians and support the disarmament of combatants and the restoration of peace and law and order. It also authorizes the mission to help investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian law by armed groups and arrest alleged perpetrators.

While U.N. peacekeepers and police will not take over until Sept. 15, the resolution immediately establishes the U.N. mission, to be known as MINUSCA. It will take over all activities of the U.N. political office, including supporting the country's political transition.

The resolution urges the transitional authorities to accelerate preparations for free and fair elections no later than February 2015. With the establishment of MINUSCA, the African Union force on the ground will receive logistical support from the United Nations. Many of its members are likely to become part of the new U.N. force after being checked to ensure they meet U.N. standards.

Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, urged the U.N. and member states to make the U.N. force a reality on the ground quickly, "including by providing carefully vetted troops, so the U.N. mission itself does not become embroiled in any allegations of abuses."

"This resolution doesn't mean that the U.N. cavalry is going to roll in and save the day," he warned. In the coming months before U.N. troops deploy, he urged all countries, especially the European Union and African Union, "to do everything in their power to bolster peacekeeping capacities on the ground, protect CAR's besieged Muslim minority, and contribute to the tragically underfunded humanitarian effort."

On the streets of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, there was a mixed reaction to the approval of a U.N. force. Cyrius Zemangui-Kette, 25, who is unemployed, said U.N. troops should have been sent in long ago, but the international community dragged its feet and now things have gotten worse.

"They say they'll arrive in September," he said. "Until then, lots of Central Africans will continue to die, so who are they coming to save?" Youssouf Adam, 45, a Muslim trader, praised the U.N. deployment but said there were other ways to resolve the crisis.

"If the International Criminal Court, for example, starts to identify the perpetrators of crimes and arrests them, that could worry the perpetrators and give a feeling of justice to the victims who would agree to lower the tensions," he said. "We also have to promote cohesion between the communities that are hostile."

Associated Press Writer Hippolyte Marboua contributed to this report from Bangui, Central African Republic.

EU ready to deploy delayed military mission to CAR

Sat Mar 29, 2014

The European Union (EU) has signaled it is ready to send troops to the Central African Republic (CAR) to help contain the violence in the strife-torn country.

After obtaining new contributions and additional support from France, the "commander of the operation has recommended the launch of the operation and expects a progressive increase in troops in Bangui," AFP quoted a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as saying on Saturday.

The peacekeeping force was due to deploy last week, but the deployment was delayed by the failure of European governments to provide key soldiers and equipment.

The date of the operation is expected to be announced Wednesday following a Tuesday meeting of EU member states.

The EU has drawn up plans to send 800 to 1,000 soldiers to join 6,000 African and 2,000 French troops already on the ground in the country.

The conflict in the CAR erupted after Christian militias launched coordinated attacks on the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government last March.

French and African troops have been unable to end the carnage and even in some occasions they have been accused of killing Muslims.

According to the United Nations, more than 950,000 people have been displaced and thousands more killed by the violence in the CAR.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/29/356505/eu-ready-to-send-military-mission-to-car/.

Thousands of Muslims stuck in C. African Republic

March 29, 2014

BODA, Central African Republic (AP) — There is only one neighborhood in Boda where Muslims are safe from the bullets and machetes of Christian militia fighters. Many who ventured out were killed, their throats slit or their cars showered in gunfire.

Even the dead must obey: Muslim bodies are buried behind an old warehouse because the traditional Muslim cemetery is now off limits. Boda is home to one of the largest Muslim communities left in Central African Republic. About 4,000 Muslims are trapped here and they say they are suffering and just want to leave after months of being targeted by the militia. Their plight is mirrored throughout the country.

Aliou Alidu stays inside the boundaries of Boda's Muslim neighborhood even as the 18-year-old's arms and legs throb from deep burns. Days earlier, his home was set ablaze by a Christian mob and he survived death by crawling out a window. There is no pain medicine here. The only doctors live on the Christian side of town, a trip he says is more likely to kill him than his burns.

There used to be a man who could link the two neighborhoods — a Christian who had long ago converted to Islam. He is now dead, along with hopes here that these two communities may ultimately reconcile.

"For generations, our families lived together and even intermarried. Now you want to kill us all?" laments Mahamat Awal, Boda's mayor, who is among those stuck in this town 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of the capital.

He meets regularly with the French forces in town and the Christian fighters known as the anti-Balaka. At each meeting the militiamen make their point clear: Every Muslim must leave the town without exception — even the mayor.

Nearly 300,000 people already have fled the sectarian violence that erupted in Central African Republic in early December when anger erupted against the Muslim rebels known as Seleka, who had overthrown the government. When they fled from power in late January, civilians turned on their Muslim neighbors, accusing them of having collaborated with the brutal regime.

Despite the mass evacuations, the United Nations warns that about 15,000 Muslims remain blockaded "in an extremely dangerous and untenable situation" such as in Boda. As a result, peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies face "terrible dilemmas such as choosing between unwillingly aiding the 'cleansing' of confined Muslim populations, or leaving them — against their will — in places where they are in real danger of being slaughtered en masse," Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said after a recent visit to the capital.

In Bangui, the capital, the several thousand Muslims who remain say they don't step outside their last remaining neighborhoods and even then some have been killed hundreds of meters (yards) away from the area mosque. And in the southwest, some 1,000 Muslims are still sheltering at a Catholic church, too scared even to let their children play soccer for fear that a stray ball could lead them outside where they could be attacked by Christian militiamen.

"People are desperately wanting to leave because they're in fear for their lives, and they haven't been able to leave initially because they couldn't afford it and now there's no transport whatsoever," said Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International.

"To give those people a solution out is protecting them. I think obviously what the international community needs to be doing is providing greater security and coming up with a long-term strategy to ensure that the people who leave are able to return in the future," she added.

That is much further ahead, though, than many in Boda want to look right now. Ousmane Nana, 49, his wife and six children are among those in Boda who say they just want out no matter what. Born and raised in the town, Nana says he never felt a sense of otherness or fear until Jan. 29, when the Muslim rebels fled town after months of brutal rule.

That was the night a group of some 30 young people armed with rifles and machetes attacked him, leaving deep gashes across his back. More than a month later, the bullet wound to his left arm is still healing. Now he waits for the day peacekeepers will evacuate Muslims from Boda and take him to neighboring Cameroon.

Thieves already have stolen his four-by-four vehicle, taken all his money, even the clothes off his back. French patrols continue in the town, but the brutal assault has eroded Nana's sense of security. He says many of his attackers were people he'd given free rides to as a driver around town.

"I was certain I was going to die that night," he says. "The good God did not allow it. Now I will leave the very first chance I get."

AU troops declare war on CAR militia

Wed Mar 26, 2014

The African Union peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic (CAR) has declared war against the majority Christian vigilante groups.

The head of the African-led peacekeeping mission to the CAR blamed the anti-Balaka groups for attacks against the troops belonging to the African Union force.

“From now on, we consider the anti-Balaka as enemies of MISCA,” media outlets quoted Congolese General Jean Marie Michel as saying, adding, “And we will treat them as such.”

The peacekeepers have been fighting the anti-Balaka in the capital Bangui since Saturday, with at least 16 people being killed in the latest clashes there.

“They even fire on people who are here to try to end this crisis on behalf of the Central African people to which they belong. We hold them responsible for attacks that have targeted our troops in recent days,” the general added.

The AU mission is in the CAR to help end an ongoing violence which broke out between Muslims and Christians a year ago.

The United Nations Human Rights chief, Navi Pillay, has recently expressed horror at the level of the ongoing violence in the CAR.

The developments come as UN has described the displacement of the Muslims of the CAR as ethnic-religious cleansing.

The conflict in the CAR erupted after Christian militia launched coordinated attacks on the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government last March.

Christian militiamen, however, have been targeting the Muslim population as a whole.

French and African peacekeepers are on the ground, but they have been unable to stop the violence and even in some occasions have been accused of killing Muslims.

France currently has around 2,000 troops in the CAR, while the African Union has three times that number.

So far, thousands of people are believed to have been killed and more than one million displaced.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/356108.html.

Influx of CAR refugees into Chad

Wed Mar 12, 2014

Chad is struggling to manage the influx of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) as its resources are limited.

The Chadian government is sheltering more than 80,000 refugees from the CAR in transit centers across the country.

This is while thousands of people have been neglected by the authorities and humanitarian agencies, and many are suffering from severe malnutrition and with no shelter other than the shade of trees.

“It is unacceptable for thousands of men, women and children who were forced to leave CAR fearing for their lives, to die here in Chad for lack of even the most basic assistance. It is important that the Chadian government and the international community including the UN agencies urgently assist these people and ensure that they have security, access to food, medical services, and adequate shelter,” Christian Mukosa, the Central Africa Researcher at Amnesty International, said.

Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator, Foura Sassou Madi, said refugees fleeing the violence in the Central African Republic are arriving in Chad in very precarious conditions in need of medical assistance.

Tens of thousands of civilians have crossed from the Central African Republic into southern Chad in the past three months. Most of them are Muslims and are sleeping in makeshift shelters near the border. The CAR has been facing deadly violence since December 2013, when Christian armed groups launched coordinated attacks against the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the government in March 2013.

On March 11, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said ongoing violence pushed most Muslims out of the western side of the CAR.

According to the UN, more than 950,000 people have been displaced and thousands more killed by violence in the country.

The atrocities take place despite the intervention of French troops in the former colony. On December 5, 2013, France invaded the CAR after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/354321.html.

C. African Republic orphans walk to refuge alone

February 25, 2014

CARNOT, Central African Republic (AP) — Ibrahim Adamou's parents had just been killed in front of him. He wasn't sure whether any of his five siblings had survived the attack by Christian militiamen who opened fire on his family of herders as they journeyed on foot.

The 7-year-old just knew he had to keep running. Covering 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) barefoot and alone, he slept under the thick cover of banana trees at night and followed the red rutted paths by day, not entirely sure where he was going, with nothing to eat.

Finally he encountered peacekeepers who gave him some cookies and pointed the way to Carnot, where a Catholic church was sheltering some 800 Muslims, including many ethnic Peuls like Ibrahim. With the help of a Christian man on a motorcycle who risked his life by giving the boy a lift, Ibrahim arrived at the church early Monday.

"When we got to a checkpoint, the militia fighters told the man, 'Leave the boy here and we will kill him'," Ibrahim recounted softly. "But the man said, 'If you are going to kill him, you must kill me too' and then they let us pass."

What is even more remarkable about Ibrahim's story is that there are at least six other children under the age of 10 with a nearly identical story in Carnot. In the nearly three months since the country erupted in violence between Christians and Muslims, leaving many hundreds dead, children appear to be in many cases the only survivors.

The Peul are a nomadic community of herders who span West and Central Africa. They often travel great distances on foot — a habit that probably enabled these children to make the journey alone. Many, like Ibrahim's family, came under attack as they were fleeing west from violence earlier this month. The survivors are only now making their way to Carnot.

"Unfortunately after fleeing they fell upon a spot where violence also had erupted," said Dramane Kone, project coordinator in Carnot for Doctors Without Borders, which has treated some of the children for malnutrition.

The refugees at the church may not be safe much longer. The armed Christian gangs outside the concrete-walled compound have ordered them to leave the country within a week or face death. The fighters have brought in gasoline and threatened to burn the church to the ground.

Ibrahim was brought to the church after the man on the motorcycle hid the boy in his home for several days. Scores of fellow Peul came to hear what news the youngster had brought from the countryside, gathering around him as he wolfed down a bowl of porridge.

Sitting on a bench outside the priest's quarters, his tiny legs too short to touch the ground, the boy seemed overwhelmed by the attention and pulled the hood of his adult-size gray sweatshirt tight around his tiny bird-like face.

The other refugees gave him what coins they had so that he could pay someone to cook meals for him at the mission. The priests said he is welcome as long as he likes, though he was clearly on his own in a sea of strangers.

Around 10:30 on a recent night, a distressed Cameroonian peacekeeper knocked on the church door to wake up the priests. A little Muslim girl who didn't know how old she was had turned up in the center of town, barefoot and shaken. The priests emerged in their pajamas to bring her inside.

Habiba, believed to be about 7, saw anti-Balaka militants kill her parents and her brothers, she whispered to a priest. They asked her where she came from: Her village was more than 80 kilometers away by foot.

Two men who had lost young daughters arrived at the door, then quickly shook their heads in disappointment. She was not theirs. No one knew who she was. One of the women from the church offered her water and some dinner leftovers of manioc and beef. At first she refused but then began to pick at the meat once she was assured it was not pork.

On Sunday just before Mass, four more new arrivals gathered on the steps of the church. One child was inconsolable and sobbed against a tree as other little boys tried to cheer him up. Ten-year-old Nourou said he spent two days being hidden by Christians, who then brought him to the church. Tears rolled down his face, some of them spilling from a crusted eye badly wounded in an anti-Balaka attack. His legs were so spindly he could barely stand.

Beside him was another Peul boy named Ahamat, believed to be about 8. He couldn't say for sure how many days he had spent walking or when he last ate. The Muslim men who welcomed him asked about his village and then shook their heads in disbelief. It is some 300 kilometers away.

"My mother and father were killed along the way, but I kept going," he said. When he heard motorcycles on the road, he would hide in the woods. When the roads were empty, he just kept walking, asking anyone he could where he could find the peacekeepers who were guarding Muslims.

By the end of their first day at the church, Ahamat, Nourou and Ibrahim had formed a band of brothers, brought together by sorrow. At night they cry for their mothers on a well-worn mattress. During the day, they play in the dirt with the other boys and chase each other around the courtyard.

A community leader shaved their heads to indicate they are in mourning for their parents, making them nearly indistinguishable with their little old man faces and knobby knees. In some cases, the children arriving in Carnot were saved by the most unlikely of people. It was an armed anti-Balaka militiaman who brought several of the boys to the church after spotting them on the edge of town.

"He left them at the door and just said that he felt sorry for the poor boys," said the priest, the Rev. Justin Nary. "Apparently he had a heart."

Angry mob kills 3 Muslims in CAR

Sat Feb 22, 2014

Three Muslim civilians have been shot dead by a group of angry Christians in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The three were traveling in the Combattant neighborhood near the airport in the capital Bangui when an angry mob stopped their taxi and killed them brutally on Saturday.

"It was extraordinarily violent. They were executed in cold blood," a witness said.

A Spokesman for the French army, headquartered in the Bangui M'Poko International Airport along with forces of the African Union (AU), confirmed that three bodies were found in the area.

He also said the French soldiers fired warning shots to force the crowd away from the corpses.

Many believe the French troops, known as the Sangaris, turn a blind eye on Christian militia, an accusation Paris rejects.

France invaded its former colony on December 5 after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the AU and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

There are many mineral resources, including gold and diamond, in the Central African Republic. However, the country is extremely poor and has faced a series of rebellions and coups since it gained independence in 1960.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/351842.html.