Muslim houses looted, burnt down in Bangui

Christian armed men have looted and burnt down dozens of houses belonging to Muslim families in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui.

Assailants on Saturday forced people in the Miskin neighborhood of Bangui to flee their homes.

One resident, Anne Marie Waratche, said her house had been looted because she had a Muslim man as a tenant. She blamed anti-balaka members for the attack.

“I leave because of the tension, I cannot stand it any longer. Yesterday the anti-balaka, they broke me, particularly the anti-balaka girls. They destroyed my house, they took everything worth taking that they found inside,” said Waratche.

The fresh attacks came a day after Georgios Georgantas, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in the Central African Republic, voiced concern about the “unprecedented level of violence” in the country.

Georgantas also urged authorities and some 7,000 French and African troops stationed in the country to “take up their responsibilities.”

On January 29, two Muslim men were killed in the neighborhood by assailants with machetes, as French forces fired warning shots in the air but did not intervene to prevent the killings.

The Central African Republic spiraled into chaos in March last year when Seleka fighters overthrew former president, Francois Bozize, and brought Michael Djotodia to power. Bozize fled the country after his ouster.

However, the country plunged into deadly violence when Christian armed groups launched coordinated attacks on the mostly Muslim Seleka people last December.

France invaded the Central African Republic on December 5, 2013, after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

The sectarian violence has reportedly killed over 2,000 people since last December, and forced about one million people to flee homes.