Several killed in CAR attack

BANGUI. — Rebel fighters and armed Muslim civilians killed “many” people in an attack on a church compound in the Central African Republic on Monday where thousands of civilians had taken refuge, Catholic Church officials said. The attack in Bambari, 380km northeast of the capital Bangui, came just a day before French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due to visit the town, where a grenade attack injured seven French soldiers last week.

Church officials said fighters from the Seleka rebel movement and armed civilians from the town’s Muslim community entered St Joseph’s Cathedral around 3pm.

“We don’t have the exact death toll yet, but many people have been killed. As I’m speaking to you, they are still there,” the Rev Jesus Martial Dembele, vicar general for the archdiocese of Bangui, told Reuters.

Between 4 000 and 6 000 mainly Christian civilians live at the cathedral, church officials said.
The Reverend Firmin Gbagoua, a priest at the cathedral, said the attackers believed that Christian militia fighters, known as anti-balaka or anti-machete, were based inside.

“They came in. They are killing people,” a nun told Reuters during the attack before quickly hanging up the phone. Further attempts to reach her were unsuccessful. Bambari is home to Seleka’s military headquarters.

A Seleka official told Reuters the group had been attacked by anti-balaka fighters in a majority Muslim neighbourhood. One Muslim civilian was killed in the clash, he said.

The Catholic Church’s Dembele accused the French forces of not stepping in to prevent the attack.
However, a French military spokesperson said French troops had intervened around 4pm and took up positions between a mainly Muslim crowd including Seleka fighters and a large group of Christians. — Reuters.

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