Fresh Violence in Bangui May Scuttle Pope’s Visit
BY CRISPIN DEMBASSA-KETTE
NOVEMBER 04 2015, 05:57
BANGUI — Armed assailants in the Central African Republic’s capital killed two men and three women and set scores of homes ablaze in violence that could further delay elections and derail a visit this month by Pope Francis.
Witnesses said hundreds of people fled their homes in Bangui on Monday after the weekend attack by men from the mainly Muslim PK-5 neighbourhood in which one man had his throat slit and more than a dozen people were shot and wounded.
The pope is due to visit Bangui on November 28-29 and go to a mosque in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods, but he hinted in an address on Sunday that the violence might lead him to cancel the trip.
Brice Kevin Kakayen, a co-ordinator for the Enfants Sans Frontieres charity, said five were killed, part of a pattern in which at least 90 people have died violently sin ce September.
President Catherine Samba-Panza called on the United Nations (UN) mission to return arms confiscated from the army to help keep the peace.
Nearly 400,000 people have fled to camps, and another 440,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, a report from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs found last month.
Ms Samba-Panza said UN peacekeepers had failed to halt the violence and called on the UN and International Criminal Court to sanction political leaders behind the unrest.
"Additional efforts must be made to boost the interventions of the international forces and negotiate the placement of advance bases in the neighbourhoods to ensure security at a local level," she said in a national address.
Ms Samba-Panza exhorted the peacekeepers to take vigorous action so that "Bangui can be secured for the coming events that are crucial for the country. The pope’s visit and the elections should be unifying events for the people of Central Africa."
The majority Christian country plunged into tumult when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in a coup in 2013, prompting lethal reprisals by mainly Christian militias and repeated bloodletting since then.
The army was sidelined during the Selekas’ rule. The interim government is yet to rearm it after officers were linked to the militias, known as anti-balaka, that conducted reprisals.
The latest attack appeared to be retaliation for a mob attack on PK-5 on Thursday in which four were killed.
Families in the Fatima district grabbed bedding and a few possessions and headed to camps for displaced people or to stay with families in the city’s south, witnesses said.
"There is no disarmament in (the Central African Republic).
"That is why the war still goes on," said Eugene Gazalima, a farmer and resident of Fatima.
The authorities delayed presidential and parliamentary elections, in part because of the unrest, to December 13, and they may be pushed back again if the violence persists.
Reuters
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| President Catherine Samba-Panza inspects troops in CAR. |
NOVEMBER 04 2015, 05:57
BANGUI — Armed assailants in the Central African Republic’s capital killed two men and three women and set scores of homes ablaze in violence that could further delay elections and derail a visit this month by Pope Francis.
Witnesses said hundreds of people fled their homes in Bangui on Monday after the weekend attack by men from the mainly Muslim PK-5 neighbourhood in which one man had his throat slit and more than a dozen people were shot and wounded.
The pope is due to visit Bangui on November 28-29 and go to a mosque in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods, but he hinted in an address on Sunday that the violence might lead him to cancel the trip.
Brice Kevin Kakayen, a co-ordinator for the Enfants Sans Frontieres charity, said five were killed, part of a pattern in which at least 90 people have died violently sin ce September.
President Catherine Samba-Panza called on the United Nations (UN) mission to return arms confiscated from the army to help keep the peace.
Nearly 400,000 people have fled to camps, and another 440,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, a report from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs found last month.
Ms Samba-Panza said UN peacekeepers had failed to halt the violence and called on the UN and International Criminal Court to sanction political leaders behind the unrest.
"Additional efforts must be made to boost the interventions of the international forces and negotiate the placement of advance bases in the neighbourhoods to ensure security at a local level," she said in a national address.
Ms Samba-Panza exhorted the peacekeepers to take vigorous action so that "Bangui can be secured for the coming events that are crucial for the country. The pope’s visit and the elections should be unifying events for the people of Central Africa."
The majority Christian country plunged into tumult when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in a coup in 2013, prompting lethal reprisals by mainly Christian militias and repeated bloodletting since then.
The army was sidelined during the Selekas’ rule. The interim government is yet to rearm it after officers were linked to the militias, known as anti-balaka, that conducted reprisals.
The latest attack appeared to be retaliation for a mob attack on PK-5 on Thursday in which four were killed.
Families in the Fatima district grabbed bedding and a few possessions and headed to camps for displaced people or to stay with families in the city’s south, witnesses said.
"There is no disarmament in (the Central African Republic).
"That is why the war still goes on," said Eugene Gazalima, a farmer and resident of Fatima.
The authorities delayed presidential and parliamentary elections, in part because of the unrest, to December 13, and they may be pushed back again if the violence persists.
Reuters
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