Attack kills 22 people in Central African Republic

At least 22 people, including 15 local chiefs and three local members of staff from humanitarian-aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), have been killed in a militant attack in the violence-plagued Central African Republic (CAR).

Officials said on Sunday that the attack took place in the town of Nanga Boguila, situated about 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of the capital Bangui, on Saturday.

Gilles Xavier Nguembassa, the town’s former member of parliament, said four people were killed as the assailants approached the area.

He added that most of the victims died when an MSF-run clinic in Nanga Boguila was attacked while local chiefs were holding a meeting there.

On Sunday, heavily armed peacekeepers escorted some of the last remaining Muslims out of Bangui, trucking more than 1,200 people who for months had been trapped in their PK12 neighborhood on the northern side of the Central African Republic’s volatile capital by violent Christian militants.

“It’s tragic and inexcusable that the situation was allowed to fall apart so that in the end evacuation was the only way to save people’s lives,” said Joanne Mariner, a senior crisis adviser for Amnesty International. “Much more should have been done to prevent ethnic cleansing in December and January – before tens of thousands of Muslims had fled.”

The United Nations has described the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Muslims as “ethnic cleansing.”

Meanwhile, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has announced that it is sending 14 delegates to the Central African Republic to help end the ethnic conflict.

Muslims have advocated calls for the establishment of a new state to be located in the north of the country. Many in the CAR Muslim community have stated that partition is the best and simplest solution to the threat of violence from Christian militiamen in the country’s south.

The African state has been the scene of fierce clashes between Muslims of the Seleka group and anti-Balaka Christian militias since late 2013.

France has deployed 2,000 troops to the country, but it has been unable to halt the deadly sectarian attacks on the country’s Muslim population.

The violence is escalating day by day despite the presence of French and African troops on the ground.