Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bangui (Agenzia Fides) - One month after the conquest, on March 24, of the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui, by the rebels of the coalition Seleka, the situation is far from stabilized.
While in Bangui motorbike taxi and bus drivers went on strike to protest insecurity, extortion and violence of which they are often victims, from the rest of the territory there are reports of assaults and abuses against civilians.
The populations of the cities of Yaloké of Bayanga in the South, and Rafa in the south-east, say that the men of Seleka and poachers from Sudan commit looting and violence. They also reported several cases of kidnapping for purposes of extortion. The city of Bayanga has been abandoned by people fleeing in search of a refuge in the forest.
According to the Réseau des journalistes pour les Droits de l'homme en République Centrafricaine (RJDH-RCA), in the city of Ouango-Bangassou in the south-east, two belonging to Seleka were killed by a group of young people who were trying to defend the local Catholic Church as an attempt of ransacking. In the reprisals that followed a number of civilians were killed, while some houses were set on fire and the building of worship was ransacked. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 25/04/2013)
