In a shocking scene, Central African Republic troops first stabbed and then lynched a man suspected of belonging to now-disbanded Seleka rebels. The hideous act came just after a ceremony where the crisis-hit country’s new interim President Catherine Samba-Panza had addressed the armed forces, urging for national unity. Seleka fighters, largely Muslim, overthrew the government in Bangui last year, leading to months of chaos that saw the country’s standing army melt away. Clashes between ex-Seleka factions and Christian militias led to thousands of deaths and almost a quarter of the nation displaced by the unprecedented sectarian violence.
Members of the Central African Armed Forces
(FACA) lynch a man suspected of being a former Seleka rebel on February
5, 2014, in Bangui. The impoverished former French colony descended into
chaos last March when rebel forces overthrew the president, but an
interim government lost control of the country. Rival Muslim and
Christian militias are now battling each other and rogue checkpoints
have been set up on nearly all main roads.Despite the presence of French
and African peacekeeping troops, violence continues to rock the
country, and has already forced about a fifth of the population of 4.6
million from their homes.
(Photo Credit: AFP/ ISSOUF SANOGO/Getty Images)
(Photo Credit: AFP/ ISSOUF SANOGO/Getty Images)
Today I met the Devil. In a scene Quentin Tarantino would not have dreamed scripting, I saw a man killed. Butchered. By his fellow countrymen. His mistake was to be named Idris and to be Muslim. What was first an orderly cheering crowd happy to hear they were finally going to get paid, turned in an instant into a tidal wave of barbarism.The VIPs had barely left. We have reached the point of no return in sectarian violence.
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