BANGUI: Suspected ex-rebels from the Central African Republic’s Seleka movement massacred at least 34 people in several northern villages over the past three days, an officer in the African peacekeeping force MISCA told AFP yesterday.
“Armed men identified by inhabitants as ex-Seleka and armed (ethnic) Fulanis” carried out the killings in the M’bres region from Wednesday through Friday, the officer said on condition of anonymity.
He said fleeing residents spoke of the attackers “firing on their victims at pointblank range and chasing them into the bush. Some of the victims died by hanging, others were beaten or tortured to death”. One resident who fled, Achille Ketegaza, confirmed that account to AFP, saying: “The attackers arrived by foot and on motorbikes. They fired pointblank at anybody they encountered.
“They said they were going to ‘clean’ eight villages between M’bres, Ndele and Bakala before September 15,” when a UN force is to be deployed to the country, Ketegaza said, pleading for help from MISCA and French forces in the country.
The attacks are the latest breach of an extremely fragile ceasefire signed in late July in the Congo capital Brazzaville that sought to curb the ethnic and religious violence that has ravaged the Central African Republic over the past 18 months.
AFP
