The International Criminal Court is opening a new investigation into atrocities, including murder, rape and persecution, committed during ruthless sectarian fighting since 2012 in the Central African Republic, the court\u2019s prosecutor said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Months of fighting between the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and the Christian anti-balaka militia have left at least 5,000 people dead in one of Africa\u2019s least developed countries, prompting Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to step in and try to bring perpetrators to justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe list of atrocities is endless,\u201d Bensouda said. \u201cI cannot ignore these alleged crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the court\u2019s second investigation in the Central African Republic. In the first, a former Congo vice president, Jean-Pierre Bemba, is on trial on charges of commanding rebels who committed murder, rape and pillaging in the country in 2002-2003. Bemba is awaiting verdicts in his trial, which began in 2010.<\/p>\n
Bensouda opened a preliminary inquiry in Central African Republic in February and in May the conflict-torn nation\u2019s government authorized the court to step in \u2014 a crucial step clearing the way for a full-blown investigation.<\/p>\n
Bensouda said that during the preliminary investigation, prosecutors studied \u201crelevant information from multiple reliable sources.\u201d<\/p>\n
The information \u201cprovides a reasonable basis to believe that both the Seleka and the anti-balaka groups have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape, forced displacement, persecution, pillaging, attacks against humanitarian missions and the use of children under 15 in combat,\u201d she said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
Rights group Human Rights Watch welcomed Bensouda\u2019s announcement.
\n\u201cAn impartial inquiry to identify those responsible for the most serious crimes from all parties is crucial to bring justice to the victims and send a clear signal to all perpetrators that they may be held to account,\u201d said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The International Criminal Court is opening a new investigation into atrocities, including murder, rape and persecution, committed during ruthless sectarian fighting since 2012 in the Central African Republic, the court\u2019s prosecutor said Wednesday. Months of fighting between the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and the Christian anti-balaka militia have left at least 5,000 people dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000054149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-16499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000054149,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton16499.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000054149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16499"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=16499"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=16499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}