Violence and looting in Bangui over the weekend left at least 11 people dead in the Central African Republic, including a lawmaker who was gunned down in a drive-by shooting and two Muslims who were lynched in revenge attacks.
Fresh fighting flared Saturday evening between Christian vigilantes and Muslims in western Bangui, where winesses say many buildings were also torched.
The Central African League of Human Rights told media Sunday that a Bangui lawmaker had been gunned down by attackers on a motorcycle after calling for an end to the violence.
Jean-Emmanuel Ndjaroua – the representative of the southeast region of Haute Kotto – had condemned the violence against the Muslim residents of his district in front of the interim parliament on Saturday.
A resident said that the Muslim killer of a Christian woman was lynched and killed before his body was burned and dumped in front of the local town hall, where it remained early on Sunday.
A suspected Christian militiaman killed another Muslim civilian and was about to burn the body when Rwandan soldiers of the African peacekeeping force MISCA shot him dead.
The shooting prompted an angry crowd to shout slogans against the Rwandan soldiers, whom they mistakenly believed to be Muslim.
Five other people were killed in unclear circumstances, witnesses said.
Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch confirmed the eyewitness reports and said another Muslim was lynched early Sunday near Bangui’s central market.
AFP
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