CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Anti-balaka youth clash with regional peacekeepers in Bangui

Record ID: 376812

  • Title: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Anti-balaka youth clash with regional peacekeepers in Bangui
  • Date: 18th February 2014
  • Summary: BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (FEBRUARY 18, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE RUNNING THROUGH STREET, GUNFIRE HEARD, PHOTOGRAPHER SEEN MOVING AWAY FROM AREA VARIOUS OF TYRES BURNING IN THE ROAD AFRICAN UNION PEACEKEEPING FORCES (MISCA) TANK DRIVING THROUGH STREET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF MISCA SOLDIERS TO GET TO EMPTY HOUSES FRENCH TANK DRIVING THROUGH ST
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Central African Republic
  • Country: Central African Republic
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA80HB32DQ5PZ7KM5GC38182WNI
  • Story Text: Residents in Bangui took cover from gunfire on Tuesday (February 18), as anti-balaka youth charged the streets, burning tyres in protest at a presidential statement encouraging Muslims who have fled fighting in the Central African Republic to return.
    Currently visiting Chad, Central African Republic's Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza conceded that she was not able to guarantee the security of Muslims in her country but said she hoped they would one day return.
    Members of anti-balaka, a mainly Christian self-defense militia established after mostly Muslim Seleka fighters took over the country last March, were seen mocking French and African Union peacekeeping troops in Bangui, after setting fire to tyres in the streets.
    Gunfire was heard echoing through the streets, as local residents were seen making for empty houses to take cover.
    The Boy-Rabe neighborhood of the capital quietened after peacekeepers cleared the road and a French helicopter was seen circling overhead.
    The former French colony has been gripped by chaos since Seleka, a loose coalition of northern rebels mixed with foreign mercenaries, launched an uprising in late 2012 in the largely Christian country.
    Almost a million people, or a quarter of the population, have been displaced by fighting in the country.
    When Seleka leader Michel Djotodia gave up power last month, Christian militias stepped up their attacks on Muslims.
    U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon has pleaded for more swift, robust international help to stop sectarian violence that could turn into a genocide.
    Paris announced last week an extra 400 troops would be sent, and the French mission would last longer than the expected six month timeframe given when it launched in December.
    Experts say the origins of the crisis lie as much in a battle for control over resources in one of Africa's weakest-governed states, split along ethnic fault lines and worsened by foreign meddling, as they do in religion.
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