Central African Republic Violence Ebbs, but U.N. Warns of Flare-Up

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/world/africa/central-african-republic.html

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GENEVA — As a measure of calm returned to the capital of the Central African Republic on Tuesday after weeks of bloody turmoil, the United Nations human rights office warned that the violence could quickly reignite and released a report implicating Chadian members of the African peacekeeping mission in attacks on civilians.

Clashes between Muslim rebels known as the Seleka and mainly Christian groups appear to have eased in the capital, Bangui, but around 40 people have been killed in fighting since Friday and the situation remains “extremely volatile,” with reports of kidnappings, mutilations and widespread looting over the weekend, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations human rights chief, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Killings and violence continue in other parts of the country, according to United Nations officials, who said several people were killed three days ago when mostly Christian groups known as anti-balaka, or anti-machete, attacked a convoy of Muslims in the town of Bozoum and more than 10 Muslims were killed in an attack on another village. The Seleka burned hundreds of houses of Christians in retaliation, the United Nations reported.

At least 405 people were killed in two days of violence in Bangui early in December, a team of United Nations human rights monitors said, quoting medical sources and the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Most estimates indicate that over 1,000 Muslims and Christians were killed,” it said.

Details of the violence emerged less than a week after Michel Djotodia, the leader swept to power by a Seleka coup in March 2013, stepped down under pressure from African leaders and as the country’s interim leader, Alexandre-Ferdinand Nguendet, announced that the weeks of anarchy and looting were over.

As a transitional national council deliberated on the selection of a new leader, due to be named in two weeks, a report by the human rights monitors, who visited the country in December, warned of “the continuing risk of a further deterioration of the security and human rights situation.”

In a report on the violence that erupted in December, the team cited the testimony of Muslim residents in Bangui reporting coordinated attacks by Christian groups against civilians. Men, women and children were killed and mutilated, the said. In retaliation, the team said, Seleka rebels, sometimes joined by the local Muslim population, summarily executed men and boys. In one instance in early December, witnesses said, the Seleka entered a Bangui hospital, removed 14 men and shot them dead in the street.

The team’s findings also cited multiple witness accounts of collusion between Chadian members of the Central African Multinational Force and Muslim rebels. In one Bangui neighborhood, the report said, Seleka and Chadian troops went door to door looking for anti-balaka members and indiscriminately killed at least 11 people, including elderly women and sick people who had been unable to flee.

The drop in violence has enabled relief agencies to resume deliveries of food and medical aid, but the World Food Program expressed concern on Tuesday that “new waves of violence” around the town of Bozoum had restricted access to people in need.

A United Nations multiagency assessment released on Monday estimates that the turmoil of recent weeks has left 2.6 million people in need of humanitarian aid. “Each of the 4.6 million Central Africans have been affected in one way or the other by the breakdown of law and order,” it says, “as well as by the collapse of families, communities, the basic infrastructure and disruption of food and market systems.”

The World Food Program has appealed for $107 million in aid to the Central African Republic, but reported on Tuesday that it had received only 12 percent of that amount and had not received any additional funds from donors since the start of the year.

Without additional contributions, it faces a “near complete” breakdown in its aid program, Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the agency, told reporters in Geneva. “In this volatile context, reduction of assistance could exacerbate tensions,” she said. “This funding is very, very urgent.”