BANGUI —
The UN mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) told AFP on Friday it had
opened an investigation into reports of the killing of a dozen civilians
attributed to local soldiers and Russian paramilitaries.
اضافة اعلان
A civil war in
the CAR that began in 2013, pitting myriad militias against a state on the
verge of collapse, had eased considerably in recent years.
But about a year
ago, fighting resumed abruptly when rebels launched an offensive to overthrow
President Faustin Archange Touadera.
Hundreds of
Russian paramilitary forces fight alongside the army, and have helped them over
the past year to push back rebels from their strongholds.
The private
military contractors are often described as belonging to the “Wagner group” — a
Russian entity with no known legal status.
The UN, France
and NGOs accuse both the army and rebels of committing crimes against
civilians.
On April 11–12,
in the villages of Gordil and Ndah, more than 1,000km northeast of Bangui,
elements of the “FACA (Central African Armed Forces) and their allies” — the
term used by both the authorities and the UN for Russian paramilitaries —
carried out an operation in which civilians were killed, security, humanitarian
and administrative sources told AFP.
Between 10 and 15
civilians were killed, the sources said.
“An investigation
has been opened into the attack by Minusca,” the UN peacekeeping mission in the
Central African Republic which has deployed some 14,000 peacekeepers in the
country since 2014, its communications director Charles Bambara told AFP.
The UN force will
make no more comment before the investigation is completed, he added.
CAR Presidency
spokesman Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said he was ot ware of the development.
Last month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet,
denounced “serious human rights violations” in the Central African Republic,
including killings and sexual violence against civilians, committed by rebel
groups but also by the military and their Russian allies.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
