{"id":28718,"date":"2016-09-19T02:52:55","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T02:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/dozens-killed-in-central-african-republic\/"},"modified":"2016-09-19T02:52:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T02:52:37","slug":"dozens-killed-in-central-african-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/dozens-killed-in-central-african-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens killed in Central African Republic massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The incident that took place in a village in the central part of the CAR marks the worst bloodshed in recent months.}<\/p>\n

Rebels have killed dozens of villagers close to a town in the centre of the Central African Republic (CAR), according to a presidential spokesman.<\/p>\n

The incident marks the worst bloodshed in recent months in a country trying to draw a line under years of religious violence and political turmoil.<\/p>\n

Albert Mokpeme, the spokesman, said the killings took place in the village of Ndomete, not far from the town of Kaga-Bandoro located in the centre of the country, about 350km north of the capital Bangui. He blamed fighters from the former Seleka rebel coalition.<\/p>\n

“There were 26 victims. The Seleka [rebels] went door to door … The village chief was among the victims,” said Mokpeme. “It was a massacre.”<\/p>\n

Violence pitting the mainly Muslim Seleka fighters against rival Christian anti-Balaka members started on Friday in Ndomete, before spreading to Kaga-Bandoro.<\/p>\n

Peacekeepers dispatched<\/p>\n

CAR’s UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, dispatched troops to the area and separated the two groups.<\/p>\n

MINUSCA said in a statement that it was reinforcing its positions in and around Kaga-Bandoro and stepping up patrols to protect civilians and prevent further violence, according to the Reuters news agency. The mission declined to say how many had died.<\/p>\n

“MINUSCA regrets the loss of human life and the wounded that were recorded and also denounces attacks against the humanitarian community and United Nations personnel,” it said, without elaborating further.<\/p>\n

CAR, which holds reserves of uranium, gold and diamonds, suffered the biggest crisis in its half-century of independence in early 2013 when Seleka toppled Francois Bozize, the president at the time.<\/p>\n

Christian fighters responded by attacking Muslims. A fifth of the population fled their homes to escape the violence, leaving the impoverished nation even more divided along ethnic and religious lines.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Faustin-Archange Touadera won a presidential election in February that was meant to help the country emerge from its bloody past. However, rebels and fighters still stalk much of the country outside the capital.<\/p>\n

\"Peacekeepers<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The incident that took place in a village in the central part of the CAR marks the worst bloodshed in recent months.} Rebels have killed dozens of villagers close to a town in the centre of the Central African Republic (CAR), according to a presidential spokesman. The incident marks the worst bloodshed in recent months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","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":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28718","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=28718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28718"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28718"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}