CAR: 115 bodies found in diamond-mining town, Red Cross says

A day after the United Nations revealed that over 100 persons have been feared dead following violent militia clashes in the Central African Republic in the last one week, the Red Cross says it found 115 dead bodies in the diamond-mining town of Bangassous.

“We found 115 bodies and 34 have been buried,” Antoine Mbao Bogo, the president of the aid group’s local branch told Reuters by phone from the capital Bangui. “They died in various ways: from knives, from clubs and bullet wounds.”

Read also: Over 100 killed in CAR militia violence, UN says

Hundreds of militia with heavy weaponry seized the southeastern border town of Bangassou at the weekend and U.N. peacekeepers have since then been trying to wrest it back.

Recent clashes have centred on diamond-rich central and southern areas of the country, with rival militias battling among themselves to control them, aid workers say.

The violence in CAR represents a new escalation in a conflict that began in 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters seized power and ousted then-president Francois Bozize, prompting reprisal killings from Christian anti-Balaka militias.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now