CAR Muslims stage protest in Bangui

Muslims have staged a protest rally in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital of Bangui, calling for their safe evacuation from the city amid deadly attacks by Christian militiamen.

On Saturday, Muslim demonstrators took to the streets in Bangui’s Muslim-dominated PK5 neighborhood, their last major enclave in the city, demanding safe evacuation from the area.

The protesters also voiced their outrage over calls by the government to disarm the remaining Muslims in Bangui.

“We are defending ourselves because we have no one,” said Ousmane Abakar, one of the organizers of the rally, adding, “If they are going to disarm PK5, they have to disarm the entire city at the same time, because every neighborhood in Bangui is armed.”

On Friday, interim CAR President Catherine Samba-Panza promised that the government would disarm the Muslims in Bangui’s PK5 district.

The CAR leader’s comments came after a mob of Christian youths attacked a mosque in Bangui on May 29. The assault appeared to be in retaliation for an alleged attack against a Catholic church that left about a dozen people dead in the city a day earlier.

The African country descended into chaos last December, when Christian armed groups launched coordinated attacks against the mostly Muslim Seleka group that toppled the government in March 2013.

In recent months, Christian militiamen have been committing acts of violence against the Muslim minority in the CAR, killing thousands of them and displacing many more.

In March, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said almost all of more than 100,000 Muslims once residing in Bangui had fled the violence perpetrated by Christian militiamen.

Amnesty International has also said a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” is underway against the Muslim civilians in the CAR despite the presence of thousands of French and African Union troops in the country.