Dozens of bodies recovered after violence in Central African Republic
Reuters - 5 hrs ago
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana
BANGUI (Reuters) - Red Cross workers have recovered 44 bodies from the
streets of Central African Republic's capital Bangui, they said on Thursday
after inter-religious fighting in the last two days.
Six Chadian peacekeepers have also been killed in the former French colony,
while judicial authorities said they had uncovered a mass grave with 30
bodies, many of them showing signs of torture, near a military base used by
Seleka rebels.
The rebels seized power in March, unleashing a wave of looting and killing
on the mostly Christian population. Thousands of French and African troops
have struggled to contain a flare-up in violence in the last week.
The mostly Muslim Seleka and Christian self-defense militias have carried
out tit-for-tat attacks on each other and on the local population.
Georgios Georgantas, head of an International Committee of the Red Cross
delegation, said the 44 bodies were probably only a fraction of those killed
in Bangui in the last two days given that his team had been unable to go
into parts of the city.
"Violence has been at extremely high levels," Georgantas told Reuters by
telephone. "We have information about more bodies in certain parts of town
which we have been unable to access because the fighting was so intense."
A representative of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at Bangui's
main hospital said it had seen more than 50 people since Wednesday night
with gunshot or machete wounds from the fighting which raged for hours
across Bangui.
A spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping mission (MISCA) said Chadian
peacekeepers were attacked by gunmen in the Gabongo neighborhood near the
airport on Wednesday.
"The number of Chadian soldiers killed has risen to six because one of them
died from his wounds this morning," Elio Yao told Reuters. He could not give
a precise total for the number of African peacekeepers killed so far in the
crisis.
Two French troops were killed just days after Paris deployed a 1,600-strong
peacekeeping mission in its former colony in early December under a U.N.
mandate to protect civilians.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Thursday that he
was appalled by the continued violence, including the reports of dozens more
bodies found on the streets of Bangui.
Ban also said he was saddened by the deaths of the six peacekeepers. "Their
mission is to provide desperately needed security. They are not part of the
conflict between Central Africans," he said.
The violence eased on Thursday as French peacekeepers took up positions on
main roads near the airport and in troubled neighborhoods, although sporadic
shooting was reported in several areas during the morning.
Many say the bloodshed has little to do with religion in a nation where
Muslims and Christians long lived in peace. Instead, they blame a political
battle for control over resources in one of Africa's most weakly-governed
states.
MASS GRAVE
Bangui's Public Prosecutor Ghislain Gresenguet said authorities on Wednesday
discovered some 30 bodies clustered near the Roux military camp by a hill on
the edge of Bangui. The corpses were scattered over a 200-metre (yard) area.
"Some of the bodies were tied up. Others had big gashes and wounds which
showed that they had been tortured," Gresenguet told Radio France
International. "They were likely killed somewhere else and dumped there."
The Christian militia, known as 'anti-balaka' which means anti-machete in
the local Sango language, accuse Chadian forces of supporting the Seleka
rebels. Chad strongly denies this.
MISCA's commanding officer, Martin Tumenta Chomu, said on Tuesday Chadian
troops would be moved outside the capital to northern Central African
Republic. The 4,000-strong MISCA force is scheduled to reach 6,000 soldiers
by the end of January.
Colonel Gilles Jaron, spokesman for the French military, said France was
deploying troops to flashpoints in the city, such as the Gabongo and Bacongo
neighborhoods.
France's force, code-named Sangaris, has between 1,000 and 1,200 men in
Bangui, with the rest deployed in the interior.
"The Sangaris force has not been the target of coordinated attacks. We are
the target of sporadic shooting which we respond to each time," he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is drafting plans for a possible U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic.
(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier in Paris, Daniel Flynn in Dakar
and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Hugh
Lawson and Ruth Pitchford)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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