Militia clashes kill 50 in C Africa town

BANGUI, Central African Republic: Clashes between rival armed groups in Bria, a strategic town in eastern Central African Republic, have left dozens dead, a senior official said on Tuesday.

More than two-thirds of the former French colony lies in the hands of armed groups, who typically claim ethnic or religious affiliations and often fight over mineral resources.

“There are about 50 dead. Some bodies were immediately buried by relatives, so it is difficult to give a precise figure,” said the prefect of Haute-Kotto department, Evariste Binguinidji.

After mediation with UN peacekeeping forces sent to the area, “the town is calm. The armed groups have withdrawn their men from the town centre and displaced people have started to return,” he said.

“My parents’ house was burnt down,” said a taxi driver who gave his name as Mahamat. “They have taken shelter in the Fulani quarter,” he told AFP, speaking over the telephone.

“Now things are better. People have started returning to the main market to shop.” The clashes are the latest test to a nearly year-old agreement aimed at bringing peace to the CAR.

Deeply poor despite its mineral wealth, the CAR has been in the grip of militia violence since 2013. Bria is the main town in a diamond-rich region. It has been ravaged by long-standing violence and parts of it are pockmarked or in ruins.

Violence erupted there at the weekend between “ethnic groups”, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in CAR, Vladimir Monteiro said on Sunday. It followed a local split several months ago within a militia called the Popular Front for the Rebirth of the Central African Republic (FPRC), several sources in Bria said.