Hundreds try to flee C. African Republic on emergency flights
Reuters - 3 hrs ago
By Paul-Marin Ngoupana
BANGUI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people tried to flee inter-religious
violence in Central African Republic on Saturday aboard emergency
flights to neighboring Chad, while nearby countries appealed for help
to rescue their citizens from the mounting humanitarian crisis.
Tit-for-tat violence between Muslim Seleka rebels, who seized power in
March, and Christian self-defense militias have killed more than 1,000
people this month in the riverside capital Bangui and displaced
hundreds of thousands more.
Fighting in the former French colony has surged in recent weeks
despite the presence of 1,600 French peacekeepers and nearly 4,000
African Union troops deployed under a U.N. mandate to protect
civilians. Bangui was calm on Saturday.
The 'anti-balaka' militia have targeted Muslims they say have
supported Seleka during months of looting and killing since March.
With many Seleka gunmen coming from Chad, its citizens in particular
have been singled out, prompting their government to charter flights
this week to bring them home.
However, many of those who waited in the heat at Bangui airport were
Muslim Central Africans who said they were fleeing their
majority-Christian homeland for fear of reprisals.
"We have never known violence as barbaric as this," said Aishatou
Abdelkarim, 31, who said she was married to a Chadian. "The devil has
taken control of our country."
Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki said some 4,000 Chadians had been
transported home so far, many of whom had lived in Central African
Republic their whole lives. That is just a fraction, however, of the
hundreds of thousands of Chadians living in landlocked Central African
Republic.
More than 800,000 people have fled their homes during this month's
fighting, with about half of them seeking refuge in Bangui, the United
Nations says. It appealed on Friday for $152 million to help meet
emergency humanitarian needs such as drinking water and sanitation in
makeshift camps.
Tens of thousands of people have sought safety at the international
airport, where French peacekeepers have a base. Women and children
waited beside piles of suitcases and bags.
Cameroon flew home 214 of its citizens on Friday, bringing the number
evacuated this month to 926, state radio there reported. Senegal and
Niger, meanwhile, have asked the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM) for urgent help in extracting hundreds of their own
expatriates.
CONGOLESE KILLED
Many say the bloodshed has little to do with religion in a nation
where Muslims and Christians have long lived in peace. Instead, they
blame a political battle for control over resources in one of Africa's
most weakly governed states.
"We used to live in perfect harmony with the Christians but it is
Seleka and the anti-balaka who are trying to divide us," said Issa
Baro, a 35-year-old Muslim trader from Chad, waiting to catch a flight
home.
Chad's Foreign Minister Faki said toppled President Francois Bozize
was responsible for the surge in violence in recent weeks and was
using the anti-balaka to undermine interim President Michel Djotodia,
Seleka's leader.
French President Francois Hollande told U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon by
telephone on Friday he wanted greater U.N. involvement in Central
African Republic. Ban is preparing a proposal for a possible U.N.
peacekeeping mission.
Two Congolese peacekeepers were killed when they were attacked by
unidentified gunmen late on Thursday, a day after six Chadian
peacekeepers were killed, a spokesman for the African Union's MISCA
peacekeeping mission said.
Two French soldiers were also shot dead in early December.
(Additional reporting by Serge Leger Kokpakpa; Writing by Daniel
Flynn; Editing by Erica Billingham)
46 comments

Best thing for U.S. to do is stay out of this mess. Let them kill each
other off and then no worries for us. Same thing in Africa also. Every
time since Korea and 60 years ago, we go, we fight and the end results
are terrible. All it gives us is inflation and wasted lives. Name a
single war since WW2 where the United States has benefited at all? The
only ones who get anything at all are the arms manufactorers. And you
still pay $4 to $5 dollars a gallon in gas.
rsar51, 3 hrs ago

The entire continent of Africa is a slave unto itself until it
addresses corruption and over population ! Import 1st World medicine
and aid to 3rd world countries and keep more people alive, but fail to
educate them in the use of birth control and don't provide them a
means to support themselves. This is profitable for those in the "
Peace Keeping and Aid Industry " and yes " Peace Keeping and Aid " is
a for profit industry ! Africa's own self inflicted misery is being
used for the profit of others ! Reality does not cease to exist just
because it is ignored !
Mr. Wheel, 7 hrs ago

What resources?
Bobby Joe, 7 hrs ago

Poor place for westerners.
TR RINO, 7 hrs ago

If anyone is paying attention this article could have been written in
every one of the past 52 weeks; just change the names of the African
or musscum countries.
peter, 4 hrs ago
http://ca.m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/hundreds-seek-flee-central-african-republic-emergency-flights-170749935.html?.b=index&.cf3=TOP+STORIES&.cf4=2&.cf5=Reuters&.cf6=%2F&.ts=1388279305&.intl=ca&.lang=en-ca
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