FIDH –
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: “THEY MUST ALL LEAVE OR DIE”
/ 3
Executive Summary
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a country divided in two: the east and the north are occupied by the Seleka rebel coalition
1
and the west is in the hands of anti-balaka militia.
2
The anti-balaka continue to encourage politico-religious cleansing through the elimination of mainly Muslim groups, despite the deployment of nearly 8,000 African Union (AFISM – CAR)
troops and French soldiers constituting the
Opération Sangaris
force.
Since the anti-balaka’s attack on Bangui on 5 December 2013, fighting between Seleka and
anti-balaka elements has occasioned over 2,000 deaths throughout the country. Over the last
year, violence and instability have forced close to a million people to take refuge in rural areas or
in Bangui, where some 273,000 people have settled in 66 different locations. Close to 288,000
people have taken refuge in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Congo.FIDH and its member and partner organisations, the Central African League for Human Rights
(
Ligue centrafricaine des droits de l’homme -
LCDH) and the Central African Human Rights
Observatory (
Observatoire centrafricain des droits de l’homme
- OCDH) have conducted several
fact-finding missions in the CAR. The last mission, in February 2014, recorded the scope,
nature of and responsibility for crimes perpetrated over the last few months, mainly between the summer of 2013 and February 2014.
The commission of widespread criminal violence
In December 2012, Seleka rebels took over the country and governed with unprecedented
violence: assassinations, massacres, extrajudicial executions and disappearances; rape, gang
rape, and other sexual violence; torture and the conscription of child soldiers; large-scale
acts of pillage and extortion, and the destruction of homes and religious property; and more. As FIDH highlights in the present report, the Seleka killed and robbed extensively, continuing
this violence in all the areas under their control, extending from the east to the north of the
country.In response to the magnitude of these crimes and the dismantling of both the Central African
Armed Forces (FACA) and all other police and security forces, particularly since June 2013, anti-balaka self-defence militia were constituted to fight the Seleka. However, this self-defence militia
soon proved to be just as predacious and violent as the Seleka themselves. Anti-balaka rebels systematically attacked all civilians believed to be Seleka or acting in support or collaboration with the Seleka. This included people of Chadian origin, the Fulani, the Gula, and the Runga.
These militia then began to target all Muslims. One person told FIDH’s fact-finding mission that
“anti-balaka and Seleka are two sides of the same coin”.
Anti-balaka advances and the attack on Bangui on 5 December 2013 signalled the start of a politico-religious cleansing of Muslims
in the south and west of the CAR. Muslims have become the target of intense anger stoked by the anti-balaka and their supporters. They have been hunted down, reduced to grouping
1. Seleka means “coalition” in Sango language.2. Anti-balaka, meaning “anti-machete” or “anti-sword” in the Sango and Mandja languages, is the term used to refer to the Christian militias formed in the CAR after the rise to power of Michel Djotodia.