Hostages freed from mosque in Central African Republic
- by Andrea Singleton
- in Global
- — May 16, 2017
"The President of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, strongly condemns the despicable attacks by armed assailants on 8 and 13 May 2017 in Bangassou, in the south-east of the Central African Republic (RCA), and in the vicinity of this locality, against the MINUSCA, resulting in several deaths and injuries among peacekeepers", the AU said in a statement.
The UN base there has also been targeted, prompting the deployment of extra troops to the remote town on Sunday in anticipation of further attacks.
"The armed elements continue to systematically and deliberately attack the MINUSCA base with heavy weaponry to impede the peacekeepers from doing their extremely vital task of protecting the civilian population and to divert them from their primary vocation of saving lives", the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the country, known by the French acronym MINUSCA, said in a statement. It can not yet determine a civilian death toll.
Many of those fighting are believed to be child soldiers who have been drugged.
He said the global community will be "relentless" in apprehending the perpetrators of these crimes and all their commanders, including some instigators who may be sponsoring these attacks from Bangui.
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CAR President Faustin Touadera said Sunday he intends to go to Bangassou to give his "support to the wounded population".
"It is too soon to give precise statistics on the number of dead following the violence but it is clear that we are looking at numbers that could easily reach 20 to 30", MINUSCA chief Parfait Onanga-Anyanga told Reuters news agency. By midday Monday, the United Nations mission in Central African Republic said "assailants have agreed to leave the city". MINUSCA is also working with humanitarian partners to ensure the safety of displaced civilians.
Looters and armed gangs roamed the streets of the Central African Republic capital after rebels seized control of the city.
More than 400,000 people in the former French colony are displaced internally and 2.2 million, or almost half the population, are reliant on aid.
