Former CAR rebel group loot and burn homes
Almost a hundred homes burned in west of country by armed members that toppled former president, military officials say.
Armed members of the Central African Republic’s former rebel coalition looted and burned down about 100 houses last week, African military officials have said, in the latest unrest to hit the chronically unstable country.
“The village of Vacap and parts of the village of Yongoro went up in flames,” an officer of the African-led stabilisation force MISCA told AFP news agency on Monday.
“Villagers’ property was destroyed by fire. They all fled to the scrubland.”
He could not say whether there were any casualties or wounded. Both villages are located in the west of the impoverished country.
The landlocked nation has been mired in chaos since the Seleka coalition of rebels ousted longtime president, Francois Bozize in March.
A new government was put in place and Seleka was disbanded in name but continues to operate as a proto-militia in the region.
The country has seen an increase in clashes between the former rebel coalition that led the coup, who are Muslim, and local self-defence groups formed by rural residents who are Christian, in common with around 80 percent of the population.
Vacap resident Norbert Doui said former rebels began raiding his village on Friday around 11am (10:00 GMT).
“They started shooting into the air, smashed entrance doors, pillaged our property before setting fire to the houses,” he said.
Colonel Adam Nassir, an officer with the Central African security forces, said the assailants were looking for a “marabout”, a Muslim religious leader, whom they accuse of backing the local self-defence group.
Colonel Nassir said the attackers had “received reliable information that the marabout who would vaccinate the (members of the self-defence group) to make them invincible” lived in the area.