UN’s CAR mission says employee kidnapped
Abduction in Bangui comes a day after a French charity worker and a churchman were seized in the same city.
The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic says armed men have kidnapped a woman employee in the capital Bangui.
Tuesday’s abduction of the MINUSCA worker came a day after a French charity worker and a churchman were seized in an area of the city controlled by anti-balaka fighters.
The armed group demanded the release of one of its leaders who has been arrested for crimes including murder.
“Unidentified armed men kidnapped on Tuesday a woman who works for MINUSCA after having stopped the vehicle in which she was travelling. A similar kidnap attempt failed just a bit earlier,” MINUSCA said in a statement.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamadoun Toure, UN spokesman in Bangui, said that he does not know why the international body has been targeted.
“We are not part of the conflict,” he said.
The country sank into chaos when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel umbrella group seized power in the majority Christian state in March 2013, topping President Francois Bozize.
A backlash from the mostly Christian or animist “anti-balaka” group led to violence that has killed thousands and displaced around one million people.