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Central African Republic: Violence Continues to Spiral
AfricaFocus Bulletin
December 19, 2013 (131219)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
According to two new reports, by Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch, violence in the Central African Republic continues to
spiral upwards, with armed militias identifying with both Muslim
and Christian communities guilty of indiscriminate massacres of
civilians. Existing international forces, consisting of an AfricanUnion
-led force reinforced by French troops, are insufficient, the
human rights groups say, calling for a more robust United Nations
presence both for security and for humanitarian assistance.
There will be no "solution" without inter-communal dialogue and the
presence of a viable state, as stressed by Conciliation Resources,
a group with wide experience of working with conflict in Central
Africa. But these are themselves impossible without minimum
security guarantees by international forces. The latest UN
humanitarian situation report, as of December 17, estimated that
more than 700,000 had been displaced by the conflict, including
214,000 since December 5 in the capital alone. Human rights
observers reported that some encampments of displaced people had
little or no protection, as the international forces now present do
not have sufficient capacity.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains the text of the report released
today from an Amnesty International team, just returned from a twoweek
visit to the Central African Republic.
The new report from Human Rights Watch, on escalating violence in
northern Central African Republic, is available at
http://allafrica.com/stories/201312190599.html
"The brutal killings in the Central African Republic are creating a
cycle of murder and reprisal that threatens to spin out of
control," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human
Rights Watch and author of the report. "The UN Security Council
needs to act quickly to bring this evolving catastrophe to a halt."
For updates on the humanitarian situation, from the United Nations
and other sources, see http://reliefweb.int/country/caf
Testimony by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary, Bureau
of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State
http://allafrica.com/stories/201312181494.html
Video interview with Kennedy Tumutegyereize, East & Central Africa
Programme Director, at Conciliation Resources, and briefing paper
on need for inter-communal dialogue.
http://www.c-r.org / direct URL - http://tinyurl.com/kolmp3y
For an earlier AfricaFocus Bulletin on the current situation in the
Central African Republic, with references to additional sources,
see http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/car1311.php
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Year-End Break
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at http://www.africafocus.org/support.php
Best wishes to all for the holidays and the new year.
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"None of Us are Safe": War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in
the Central African Republic
Amnesty International Public Statement
AI index: AFR 19/013/2013
19 December 2013
http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/central-african-republic
Introduction: Overview of Findings
An Amnesty International delegation has just returned from a twoweek
mission to Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR) and
documented serious violations of international humanitarian law and
gross violations of human rights following the 5 December attack in
Bangui and its aftermath, including war crimes and crimes against
humanity. The commission of these crimes should be of great concern
to the international community as a whole. All states have an
obligation to investigate and, where enough admissible evidence is
gathered, prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Amnesty International collected information about serious
violations and abuses, including unlawful killings, committed by
the de facto government forces, known as ex-Seleka, and the loosely
organised armed opposition groups known as anti-balaka, as well as
about acts of vigilante violence committed by local civilians.
Amnesty International notes with great concern that a key aspect of
the current situation is the blurring of lines between organised
armed groups and more ad hoc, vigilante mobs.
Both Christians and Muslims were killed on 5 and 6 December, as
both ex-Seleka and anti-balaka militias systematically attacked the
civilian population. Both groups went house to house, breaking down
doors, searching for men to kill. During the first wave of the
attack, in the very early morning hours of 5 December, the antibalaka
forces were extremely active in their attacks, but after the
ex-Seleka forces managed to push back the anti-balaka groups they
began a much more extensive series of reprisal attacks against
Christians. Although the ex-Seleka in some cases claimed to be
searching for anti-balaka militants, they did not make a meaningful
effort to distinguish between militants and other non-militant
Christian men. While some proportion of those killed on 5 December,
particularly those killed in the early morning, were likely to have
been killed in combat, the large majority of the killings appear to
have been unlawful.
Steve Domdeng, age 28, was killed by ex-Seleka forces at around
noon on December 5. A civil servant who worked for the civil
aviation authority, he lived in the PK 14 area on the outskirts of
Bangui. During reprisal attacks carried out by the ex-Seleka in the
wake of the anti-balaka attack on the city, a group of ex-Seleka
came to his house. Domdeng, who was said to be unarmed, attempted
to flee with another man, but he was caught and killed with a
machete, receiving machete wounds on his head and stomach. His
family buried him in the fields near his house.
Particularly in the wake of the 5 December 2013 attack on Bangui,
after which nearly 1,000 people were killed, the deep sense of
anger and grievance that is apparent in the Christian and Muslim
communities—as well as these populations' pervasive fear and
insecurity—raises serious concerns about a potential downward
spiral of intercommunal violence. If, as appears to be the case,
the power of the ex-Seleka forces is waning, and anti-Muslim forces
are gaining momentum, the minority Muslim community may be
particularly at risk. [Muslims make up an estimated 15 percent of
the population of the Central African Republic.] The anger in both
communities is palpable and disturbing.
Background
CAR has a tragic history of human rights violations by successive
governments and armed groups. The armed conflict escalated in early
December 2012 when Seleka, a coalition of several armed groups,
launched an armed offensive against the government of former
President François Bozizé. Since December 2012, hundreds of
civilians have been deliberately killed while thousands have been
subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.
Seleka seized power on 24 March 2013. In the subsequent months,
Amnesty International continued to receive reports of an ongoing
pattern of Seleka soldiers and other armed groups - some of them
associated with Seleka and others not - committing human rights
violations and abuses with almost total impunity across the
country. President Michel Djotodia formally dissolved Seleka in
September 2013. The human rights violations and abuses, however,
continued.
The arbitrary and abusive nature of the new government's rule has
helped generate the current high level of sectarian hostility. The
majority of the country's population is Christian, as was the
former President François Bozizé. The current transitional
president, Michel Djotodia, is Muslim, as are most members of the
ex-Seleka forces. Many Christians seem to attribute responsibility
for the ex-Seleka's abuses to the Muslim minority as a whole; they
seem to think that all Muslims are, at the very least, complicit in
ex-Seleka abuses. And many Muslims, too, seem willing to attribute
anti-balaka abuses to Christians as a community.
On 5 December the UN Security Council unanimously approved the oneyear
deployment of troops under an African- led International
Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA). African
leaders later agreed to expand the force to 6,000 troops, who have
taken over from the existing contingent of peacekeepers from
central African states on 19 December. Some 1,600 French troops
have also deployed separately to the Central African Republic.
CAR is awash with small arms and light weapons, with ex-Seleka
fighters, as well as other armed groups and the population, having
easy access to weaponry.
Cycle of Attacks and Killings Continue
The arrival of 1,600 French troops, beginning on 6 December, has
not stopped the violence in Bangui, though their deployment has
likely prevented even more large-scale bloodshed. More than 90
people have been killed in Bangui since 7 December, including a
roughly equivalent number of Muslims and Christians. Much of the
violence occurs at night, when ex-Seleka reportedly roam
neighbourhoods and pillage homes, but there are also revenge
attacks that take place in broad daylight.
The morgue at the Ali Babolo mosque in Bangui's PK5 neighbourhood
has received daily deliveries of the bodies of Muslims who have
been killed, allegedly by anti-balaka forces and local youth
associated with anti-balaka forces. The bodies of Christians,
believed to be killed both by ex-Seleka forces and by Muslim
vigilantes, are sent to the central morgue at the Community
Hospital (Hôpital Communautaire), or are buried in family
courtyards and local cemeteries.
Rodrigue Burofei, age 34, was killed on Monday, 16 December.
Married with five children, Burofei lived in the Ousman
neighbourhood; he took refuge at the airport when violence erupted
in Bangui on 5 December. Early in the morning of 16 December,
Burofei tried to return to his house to retrieve some clothing and
personal items. His family did not know of any witnesses who could
describe the precise circumstances of his death, which was
extremely violent. Burofei's body was found at approximately 8 am
that morning, around the corner from a house that is said to be
inhabited by a group of ex-Seleka; and his family is convinced it
was the ex-Seleka who killed him. He had been stabbed and cut with
machetes; his head was badly damaged.
His family said that Burofei was unarmed and not involved in
military activity; his profession, they said, was commercial
logistics. "He was a family man," one of his family members told
Amnesty International. "His killing shows that none of us are
safe."
Muslims are also being targeted and killed. Father and son Laden
Amadou Dougso (aka Mandra), age 69, and Omaro Amadou Mandra, age
28, were killed together on Saturday, 14 December, reportedly by a
violent Christian mob. Laden was born in Cameroon but had lived in
Bangui since 1965; all of his children were born in CAR. After the
violence broke out in Bangui on 5 December, he took steps to send
his family to Cameroon for safety. Several of his grandchildren
were at the Cameroonian embassy waiting to travel to the country,
and he had gone to the airport to bring some necessary
identification papers to facilitate their travel. Taking a
motorcycle taxi with his son Omaro back from the airport, they were
stopped by a group of men and both Laden and Omaro were killed.
Their bodies, which stayed on the street most of the day, were
horribly mutilated: the father was nearly decapitated; his genitals
were cut off, and at least one of his hands was cut off and
attached to a stick. The crowd took photos of the bodies to keep on
their cell phones.
While the large majority of those killed are men, women and
children have also been targeted. For instance, on Thursday, 12
December, four Muslim women and a 2-year-old boy were killed,
reportedly in Bangui's Combattant neighbourhood.
In addition to unlawful killings, the looting and the physical
destruction of property continues. Muslim shops in the Combattant
market area were systematically looted between 9 and 11 December,
with merchants losing millions of CFA (equivalent to thousands of
pounds) worth of goods. Angry Christian mobs destroyed several
mosques that same week: in the Fouh, Combattant, and Oahango
neighbourhoods. The Amnesty International team witnessed the
destruction of the mosque in the Fouh neighbourhood, as well as the
burning of the house of the local imam. Ex- Seleka forces continue
to loot Christian homes in several neighbourhoods.
Forced Displacement
The violence in Bangui has resulted in massive forced displacement
of people across the city, as formerly mixed Christian/Muslim
neighbourhoods empty out.
More than 210,000 people—at least 25 percent of the city's
population—have fled their homes, some moving in with relatives,
but the majority staying in ad hoc places of refuge such as
churches, monasteries, and the area around the airport. More than
700,000 people have fled their homes across the entire country.
The humanitarian need of these displaced populations is enormous,
and the international community has yet to fully respond to it.
Many displaced people have only limited access to food, shelter,
medical care and sanitation; some sites such as Guitangola and
Guitangola Carriere have still not received even basic humanitarian
assistance.
Urgent Need for Protection
There can be no prospect of ending the cycle of violence in Bangui
until the militias and other armed actors are disarmed, and
civilians are protected. Given the proliferation of firearms and
other weapons, efforts to carry out meaningful disarmament will be
extremely challenging.
During the present period of severe instability, it is crucial that
key sites such as hospitals and camps for displaced people receive
adequate protection. In particular, displaced persons camps should
have a sufficient number of international troops posted at the gate
and carrying out regular patrols within and around them. At present
the numbers of troops at several sites seem insufficient. When
Amnesty International visited the Boy Rabe monastery, for example,
where 17,000 people have taken refuge, the researchers saw only
four African soldiers. Other sites, such as the Guitangola
community, were without any protection at all.
Amnesty International also found that the paediatric hospital
lacked any protection. Only ex-Seleka troops were posted in front
of the Community Hospital (Hôpital Communautaire), worrying some
patients and potentially discouraging others from seeking
treatment.
Amnesty International has learned of attacks on those who have been
disarmed by mobs seeking revenge. Any disarmament process must
therefore be accompanied by effective physical protection measures,
particularly in crisis hotspots such as Bangui's PK5, Miskine and
Combattant neighbourhoods.
Number of People Killed on 5-6 December
Amnesty International estimates that between 800 and 1,200 people
were killed in and around Bangui on 5 and 6 December, the vast
majority of whom were men. This estimate is based various
information gathered through discussions with representatives of
the national Red Cross, the central morgue, the Ali Babolo mosque,
local human rights organisations, other civil society groups, and
numerous family members of victims. Amnesty International
delegation also visited quite a number of ad hoc burial sites in
different neighbourhoods of Bangui. It would, however, require a
neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood survey to calculate the number of
the dead with any real precision.
Without a doubt, the official Red Cross figure of 459 people killed
during the initial two-day explosion of violence represents a
serious undercount the total death toll. As Red Cross
representatives acknowledge, their figure represents the numbers of
corpses that Red Cross workers themselves saw and retrieved; it
does not include the many victims who were buried by their families
in small, ad hoc plots near their homes. Given the extreme dangers
of the first two days of violence, a significant proportion of
family members did not call the Red Cross, which was unable to meet
the overwhelming need. Rather than let their relatives' bodies rot
outside in the heat, families buried their loved ones informally.
Indeed, some neighbourhoods of Bangui, such as Castor, Fatima, and
Boy Rabe, are now dotted with small graves.
Amnesty International visited numerous ad hoc burial sites, many of
them located right next to the house of the person who was killed.
A large proportion of the people interviewed said that they had
buried their loved ones in this manner, without informing the Red
Cross of the death.
The large majority of those killed on 5 and 6 December were
Christian men targeted by ex- Seleka forces, but at least 63 of the
dead were Muslims. While nearly all of those killed on 5 and 6
December were men, at least five Christian women and four Muslim
women were killed (including three from a single family).
Conflict across the Entire Country
Similar human rights violations and abuses, including unlawful
killings, pillage, and massive forced displacement, are reported to
have taken place in other parts of the country before and after the
5 December attack on Bangui.
The team visited a children's hospital where 10 Peuhl children
injured in an attack on a Peuhl village near the town of Boali (90
km from Bangui) were being treated.6 During the attack, which took
place a few days before the eruption of violence in Bangui, nearly
all of the children received direct machete hits to the head; some
were shot. Most of their parents had been killed during the attack,
which was allegedly carried out by anti-balaka forces. "We were
defenseless," one of the surviving mothers told Amnesty
International. "They slaughtered us mercilessly."
Ending Impunity
The Central African Republic has seen decades of impunity for
serious human rights violations. None of the country's previous
governments has ever delivered fair and impartial justice, even for
serious crimes such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial
executions, and torture. At present, the lack of justice for
serious crimes perpetuates the cycle of violence, as some victims
believe that the only way to punish the suspected perpetrators is
to engage in vigilante action. Ending the reign of impunity—by
properly investigating, prosecuting and punishing those responsible
for serious violations—would do much to assuage inter-communal
tensions and restore confidence in the rule of law.
Amnesty International has received credible information regarding
the identity of several ex- Seleka commanders who personally led
the killings of people in some parts of Bangui, including in
various areas of the 3rd arrondissement and, on at least two local
hospitals from where at least 10 people were taken and later killed
between 5 and 6 December. These men, as well as abusive anti-balaka
commanders, should be investigated and, where appropriate,
prosecuted, either by domestic or international judicial
mechanisms. The planned UN Commission of Inquiry should make
recommendations regarding the best means of ensuring individual
accountability for the crimes that have been committed.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Civilians in the Central African Republic live in imminent risk of
attack. Impunity for crimes under international law is rampant, and
inter-communal distrust and hostility is fuelling tit- for-tat
killings, vigilantism and mob violence. What remains of the state
has utterly failed to offer effective protection to all communities
without distinction. At present, the civilian population is in
urgent need of physical protection, basic humanitarian assistance,
the disarmament of militias and other armed groups, and an end to
impunity.
The international community can do much to end this human rights
and humanitarian crisis. In order to prevent a further
deterioration of the situation and to re-establish the rule of law,
Amnesty International makes the following recommendations:
Amnesty International calls on the international community, and in
particular the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN), to:
- Provide the African-led International Support Mission in the
Central African Republic (MISCA) and other international
peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic with sufficient
resources, including additional personnel and materials, to enhance
their capacity to rapidly deploy in all regions of the country in
order to provide effective protection to the civilian population
and prevent the commission of new attacks;
- Speed up the UN Secretary-General's assessment of the conditions
on the ground for the possible transformation of MISCA to a United
Nations peacekeeping operation, and immediately start contingency
preparations and planning for that transformation, as requested by
Security Council resolution 2127 (2013);
- Expeditiously dispatch an adequate number of UN monitors to
investigate and publicly report on all violations of human rights
and international humanitarian law as part of the UN Integrated
Peacebuilding Office in the CAR (BINUCA) mandated by Security
Council resolution 2121 (2013). Human rights monitors must have
logistical and other support, including protection, so that they
can travel safely to all areas of the country;
- Expedite the deployment of the international commission of
inquiry as decided in Security Council resolution 2127 (2013) to
look into violations and abuses of international humanitarian law
and international human rights law in CAR by all parties, in order
to help identify the perpetrators and ensure that they are held
accountable;
- Expedite the appointment of the UN Human Rights Council's
Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Central
African Republic.
Amnesty International calls on the parties to the
conflict to:
- Immediately cease carrying out deliberate attacks on civilians
and other violations of international humanitarian law, as well as
human rights abuses;
- Publicly condemn, from the highest level of leadership, all
unlawful killings and other human rights abuses and violations of
international humanitarian law committed by their forces;
- Instruct their forces that such abuses will not be tolerated
under any circumstances and those who commit such abuses will be
held fully accountable;
- Remove from the ranks anyone suspected of ordering or committing
serious violations of international humanitarian law or human
rights abuses;
- Cooperate with independent and impartial investigations into
violations, including the planned UN commission of inquiry.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
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