New CAR PM says ending atrocities is priority

Sectarian violence

Coup leader, Djotodia, failed to rein in a wave of killing, raping and looting by his former fighters, leading to reprisal attacks from Christian vigilante groups such as anti-balaka that are accused of committing atrocities of their own against Muslims, including civilians.

Samba-Panza, the country’s first woman leader, was elected by the interim parliament to replace Djotodia after he resigned under international pressure on January 10. She and Nzapayeke are tasked with forming a government to end the bloodshed, restoring the operations of a state whose coffers are empty, whose employees have not been paid in months, and organizing general elections by February 2015.

On Sunday, violence continued in the capital, Bangui, where gunshots rang out as looters tried to raid the central business district. Looters and anti-balaka fighters have been regularly pillaging the neighborhood, whose shops are mostly Muslim-owned.

A Muslim former minister was hacked to death by machete-wielding militiamen in Bangui on Friday and last week, two Muslim men were lynched in Bangui by Christian mob, in a gruesome attack. Aid organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, has said more than 50 people have been killed in the past two weeks.

The violence has killed more than 2,000 since December, and forced about a million people – nearly a quarter of the population – to flee their homes.

Source: Al Jazeera

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