CAR: UN berates protesters who dumped corpses at its Hq, says it’s propaganda

Protests by scores of civilians in the Central African Republic (CAR) who are aggrieved that many nationals were killed in clashes between United Nations troops and armed groups have been described as a propaganda.

The UN says protesters who placed corpses in front of their headquarters in the Central African Republic (CAR) were using the bodies for “propaganda”.

“Some people are using dead bodies… to say that we have killed civilians,” a UN spokesman told the BBC.

Placing 17 dead bodies outside the UN building in Bangui, the protesters who called for an end to the violence said the dead were innocent civilians killed in clashes between UN troops and armed groups.

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But the UN however said that those who were killed were armed criminals who had been targeting peacekeepers and government soldiers.

“They shot at our peacekeepers and we returned fire,” UN spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said. “The bodies resulted from the clashes.”

“We condemn the fact that some people are using dead bodies for a kind of propaganda,” he added.

The CAR was plunged into turmoil in 2013 when Muslim rebels from the Seleka umbrella group seized power in the majority-Christian country.

A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-balaka, rose up to counter the Seleka bringing a temporary end to violence in the country.

However, a new government elected in 2016 has failed to bring peace to the mineral-rich nation which has been unstable since its independence from France in 1960.

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