The Séléka, a predominantly Muslim group of fighters seized Bangui, the capital, and toppled the government in early 2013. Christian forces known as anti-balaka have stepped up attacks against Muslim civilians in places where the Séléka no longer holds the sway it did when it first
took control. Muslims are hacked to death in front of ecstatic cheering onlookers as the country is plunged into a campaign of ethnic cleansing reminiscent of Rwanda.
Many Muslim communities have been wiped off the map and the residents executed or forced to flee. The Telegraph tells the grisly story of a Muslim woman and her three children, hacked to death with machetes on the steps of a mosque. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered though as their bodies are burnt or dumped in mass graves the number of dead is incalculable.
The French peacekeepers often seem stunned by the violence around them, and don’t appear to be doing much to stop it. Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme he saw French peacekeepers do nothing while corpses were mutilated at the airport at the capital Bangui.
Since December many defenceless Muslim communities have been forced to face the wrath of the anti-balaka. The Christian militias are filmed destroying mosques, torturing and chasing innocent civilians. Crowds chant ‘We do not want any more Muslims in our country. We will finish them all off.
This country belongs to the Christians.’ Nearly a million people are thought to have been displaced from their homes. The humanitarian crisis is affecting 4.6 million 2.3 million of that children as they are left without clean water and proper food. The small numbers of peacekeepers are proving ineffective something else needs to be done or the slaughter will continue.
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