{UAH} CONVOY ATTACK KILLS 21 IN CAR

 

Group: Convoy attack kills 3 children, 19 adults in Central African Republic

By Michael Martinez and Elwyn Lopez, CNN
updated 6:33 PM EST, Sat January 18, 2014

Muslim civilians prepare to board trucks in Bangui to flee the
Central African Republic capital on January 18. Fresh fighting has
broken out in the conflict-torn nation, witnesses said, as the
deadline closed for candidates to register for a vote by the
transitional parliament for a new interim president. The African
nation has been dealing with violence between Muslim and Christian
militias since a March coup.

(CNN) -- Gunmen launched grenades and used machetes against Muslims
being evacuated in a truck convoy in Central African Republic, killing
at least three children and 19 adults, a humanitarian group said
Saturday.

At least 23 more people, including children, were injured in Friday's
attack and were being treated in a hospital in Bouar, in the
northwestern part of the country, said Michael McCusker with Save the
Children in Bangui, the nation's capital.

The African country has been wracked with such serious religious and
ethnic violence, including between Muslims and Christians, that the
United Nations has said it fears a genocide could be brewing, and aid
groups warn of a humanitarian crisis.

The convoy was carrying mostly Muslim families from the village of
Vakap when a grenade was launched into the trucks, said officials with
Save the Children, a U.K.-based aid group.

Attackers hacked many victims with machetes, the group said.

The mostly Muslim families in the convoy were being evacuated from
violence and were ultimately destined for refuge in neighboring
Cameroon.

"It is a sign of the still fraught and highly dangerous situation in
the Central African Republic that children and their families have
been attacked and killed while trying to evacuate to safety," said
Robert Lankenau, the group's director in the country.

The Bouar hospital treats both Christians and Muslims, the group said.

Security has deteriorated since the country's interim leaders,
President Michel Djotodia and Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye,
announced their resignation at a regional summit in Chad this month.

Chaos struck the Central African Republic last year after a coalition
of rebels dubbed Seleka ousted President Francois Bozize, the latest
in a series of coups since its independence.

Rebels infiltrated the capital in March, sending Bozize fleeing to Cameroon.

Djotodia, one of the Seleka leaders, then became interim president in a coup.

Since then, political turmoil and violence has spread. Seleka is a
predominantly Muslim coalition. To counter the attacks on their
communities, Christians assembled vigilante groups and fought back.

The violence prompted U.N. fears about a genocide brewing.

Children beheaded as violence grows

At least 1,000 people have died in the violence, and some 958,000 more
people, many of them children, have been forced from their homes
within the Central African Republic, according to the United Nations'
refugee agency, UNHCR.

There are also more than 86,000 refugees in Cameroon, Chad, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo who
fled the Central African Republic in 2013, the UNHCR said Friday.

Some 100,000 people have gathered at a makeshift camp by the
international airport in Bangui, seeking refuge from the violence.

French troops have deployed under a U.N. mandate to assist African peacekeepers.

 

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           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
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