Right
now, Anti-balaka militias are carrying out violent attacks in an effort
to ethnically cleanse Muslims in the Central African Republic.
#CARcrisis International peacekeeping troops need to urgently step up their operations to effectively protect civilians, in particular
the country’s remaining Muslim communities.
Amnesty International UK
Ethnic cleansing of Muslims has been taking place in the western part of the Central African Republic since early January.
Entire Muslim communities have been forced to flee on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds of Muslims who have not managed to escape have been killed by the loosely organised militias known as anti-balaka.
Oure, a Muslim woman whose four sons were killed by anti-balaka fighters on 26 January told us: > 'They killed my children heartlessly, The children were slaughtered in front of our eyes, both my children and my sisters’ children.'
Anti-balaka, which means anti-machete, are militia made up of Christians. The most deadly attack we have documented took place on 18 January in Bossemptele, where at least 100 Muslims were killed. Among the dead were women and old men, including an imam in his mid-70s.
Entire Muslim communities have been forced to flee on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds of Muslims who have not managed to escape have been killed by the loosely organised militias known as anti-balaka.
Oure, a Muslim woman whose four sons were killed by anti-balaka fighters on 26 January told us: > 'They killed my children heartlessly, The children were slaughtered in front of our eyes, both my children and my sisters’ children.'
Anti-balaka, which means anti-machete, are militia made up of Christians. The most deadly attack we have documented took place on 18 January in Bossemptele, where at least 100 Muslims were killed. Among the dead were women and old men, including an imam in his mid-70s.
History of the conflict
Ethnic cleansing of Muslims has been taking place in the western part of the Central African Republic since early January.
Entire Muslim communities have been forced to flee on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds of Muslims who have not managed to escape have been killed by the loosely organised militias known as anti-balaka.
Oure, a Muslim woman whose four sons were killed by anti-balaka fighters on 26 January told us: > 'They killed my children heartlessly, The children were slaughtered in front of our eyes, both my children and my sisters’ children.'
Anti-balaka, which means anti-machete, are militia made up of Christians. The most deadly attack we have documented took place on 18 January in Bossemptele, where at least 100 Muslims were killed. Among the dead were women and old men, including an imam in his mid-70s.
History of the conflict
The Crisis in the Central African Republic began in December 2012 when mostly Muslim Seleka forces launched an armed offensive that culminated in their seizure of power in March 2013.They were in power for nearly ten months and during that time the Seleka were responsible for massacres, extra-judicial executions, rape, torture, and looting, as well as burning and destruction of Christian villages on a massive scale.
In December 2013 the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of 7,100 peacekeepers to the country made up of forces from the African Union and France.
Revenge
Donatella Rovera our Senior Crisis Response Adviser visited the Central African Republic in January to collect evidence.As the Seleka withdrew, the peacekeepers allowed the anti-balaka militias to take control of town after town. This resulted in predictable violence aimed at Muslim communities.
But as the Seleka lost their power they continued to carry out vicious attacks on Christians. Armed members of Muslim communities, acting independently or alongside Seleka forces, have also carried out brutal and large scale sectarian attacks against Christians.
Urgent action needed
The severity of the situation in the Central African Republic demands an immediate response.'My father, Soba Tibati, could hardly walk and could not run away when the anti-balaka attacked our village. They decapitated him in front of my eyes as he sat on a straw mat under a tree outside our hut. Twelve other members of my family were also massacred in the same attack. The youngest was a baby girl who was just six months old.'It is time for the peacekeeping operation to protect the civilian population, to be deployed to threatened areas and to stop people being forced to flee their homes.
Dairu Soba, survivor of an attack by anti-balaka fighters in Boyali on 8 January
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