Bishop charges UN troops with complicity in Central African Republic massacre

August 11, 2017

A Spanish missionary bishop in the Central African Republic said that militants of the Muslim-dominated Séléka rebel group were able to massacre 50 civilians in the village of Gambo on August 4 and 5 because UN troops chose not to disarm them.

After the Séléka militants started kidnapping and raping Gambo’s women, the largely Christian and animist militants of the Anti-balaka movement launched an attack, Bishop Juan-José Aguirre Muñoz told the Fides news agency.

“Trigger-happy” peacekeeping troops from MINUSCA—the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission—then opened fire on the Anti-balaka forces, according to the bishop, but did not disarm Séléka, creating conditions in which Séléka members were able to slit the throats of 50 men, women, and children.

“These so-called peacekeeping troops whose job is to disarm all the factions in the country did forcefully disarm the Anti-balaka but not the Séléka,who appear more heavily armed than ever,” he said. “Here is a sense of complicity which we fail to understand.”

 

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Further information:

• AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - Massacre in Bangassou denounced by the Pope: local Bishop condemns ‘trigger-happy’ UN troops (Fides)
• Central African Republic bishop: ‘they are cutting the throats of men and children’ (CWN, 8/10)