![]() ![]() Rich in diamonds, timber, gold, uranium and even oil, Central African Republic has been racked by five coups and numerous rebellions since independence from France in 1960 as different groups fought for control of state resources. “We said to ourselves that the country cannot continue to be held hostage by foreigners,” Bokoe told Reuters. He said his group’s aim was purely political: it would fight on until Seleka leader Michel Djotodia, installed as interim president, left power. “We carried out these attacks because we have been invaded by foreigners by Chad and Sudan,” said Hercule Bokoe, a member of the militia, known as “anti-machete” and set up for self defence before the Seleka rebels arrived. Instead, they blame a political battle for control over resources in one of Africa’s weakest-governed states, split along ethnic faultlines and worsened by foreign meddling. Many in the country insist that the origins of the bloodshed have little to do with religion, in a nation where Muslims and Christians have long lived in peace. The violence has displaced some 700,000 people so far. Religious leaders had sounded the alarm over abuses by the Seleka after they burned churches, looted and killed during their southward march on the capital early this year. The slaughter prompted France to immediately deploy 1,600 troops under a U.N. More than 1,000 people were killed, according to Amnesty International, as mostly Muslim fighters from the Seleka rebel group that seized power in March retaliated against Christians. The two-day frenzy of violence in Bangui this month fed fears that Central African Republic was about to descend into religious warfare on a scale comparable to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. ![]() “Then they hacked and clubbed our neighbours, a husband and wife, to death.” ![]() “They killed him just like that in front of our child,” said Mariam, who fled through the back door. Families displaced from violence take shelter at the Don Bosco Catholic youth centre in Bangui December 25, 2013. ![]()
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