Thirteen displaced refugees have been hacked to death by a mostly Muslim militia in the Central African Republic (CAR).
The Seleka militia managed to stab or hack 13 displaced people to death on Wednesday before United Nations peacekeepers fought them off, killing at least 10 of the attackers in the process, according to media reports.
“Several people were also wounded in the attack on Kaga-Bandoro, a town of dirt roads and thatched mud huts. A witness saw militiamen stab two displaced people to death as people were fleeing. When some tried to fight back with clubs, the militiamen began firing guns,” The New York Times (NYT) reported.
Hundreds of surviving villagers from earlier violence then fled towards the UN peacekeeping base.
The CAR has been in chaos since early 2013, when a militia known as the Seleka, which draws mostly from the country’s minority Muslim population, toppled President François Bozizé, reported the NYT.
Militias alligned with the Christian majority responded by attacking Muslims, and a fifth of the population fled their homes to escape the violence, leaving the nation deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines.
CAR’s United Nations peacekeeping mission, which has sought to try to keep the rival factions apart, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CAR is rich in uranium, gold and diamonds but has one of the world’s most isolated economies due to exports and imports having to travel 850 miles by road between the capital, Bangui to the Cameroonian port of Doula, reported the NYT.
Eleven people were killed in Bangui last week.
