UN condemns surge in Bangui violence
October 18, 2014, 7:20 pm

Thousands of civilians have fled the capital Bangui in recent days, the UN says [Xinhua]

The UN condemned on Friday the recent surge in armed attacks which have killed and wounded hundreds. The world body says more than 3,000 people, including children, have been displaced in the past three days alone.

On October 15, Christian anti-balaka militia ransacked civilian homes in the capital after clashing with UN troops. Officials said three militia were killed and four UN soldiers wounded.

A week earlier, a UN peacekeeper was killed and six other international soldiers wounded in two separate incidents. There has been growing dissent as well as more brazen attacks by militia amid calls for the interim government, which took power last January, to step down.

In January 2014, the country’s National Assembly selected Catherine Samba-Panza to be the interim president replacing Michel Djotodia – a Muslim, and former commander of predominantly Muslim fighters known as Seleka – who had just fled to Benin.

The change in government, however, failed to stem the tide of violence and by March, UN relief agencies said that the capital Bangui had been purged of its Muslim population.

France and the European Union reiterated calls by the UN Secretary-General that the Security Council mandate the deployment of peacekeepers, a process which did not bear fruit until September when international forces began arriving and relieving the already stationed 6,000 French and African Union troops.

A United Nations Security Council resolution in April approved the deployment of 11,800 peacekeepers and police to stabilise the Central African Republic, which has since November been embroiled in ethnic conflict and lawlessness.

Named MINUSCA, the force of 10,000 soldiers and 1,800 police members will replace the nearly 2,000 French troops and over 3,000 African troops currently there.

But the UN resolution also demanded “that all militias and armed groups put aside their arms, cease all forms of violence and destabilising activities immediately and release children from their ranks.”

Human rights groups operating in CAR have warned for nearly a year that sectarian conflict is on the increase in the eastern part of the country.

Source: Agencies