Around 100 killed in CAR after truce deal

BANGUI, Central African Republic: The death toll from clashes in Central African Republic has surged to around 100, local officials said yesterday of violence that erupted hours after the government signed a truce with rebel groups. The bloodshed, which left dozens more injured, dashed hopes of an end to the simmering sectarian violence which has blighted the country since 2013, pitting Christian anti-Balaka militias against mainly Muslim ex-Seleka rebels.

Shooting erupted early on Tuesday in the central town of Bria and by midnight (2300 GMT) security sources and NGOs said some 40 people had been killed with another 43 wounded. But by Wednesday morning, the death toll had risen to around 100, according to the town’s mayor Maurice Belikoussou and its parish priest Gbenai. The fighting began just hours after Bangui reached a deal with rebel groups on an immediate ceasefire in an agreement brokered by a Catholic group in Rome.

Since mid-May, Bria and several other southeastern towns - Bangassou, Alindao and Mobaye - have been engulfed by violence. By the end of the month, the fighting had already killed 300 people, wounded 200 and displaced 100,000 others, the UN’s humanitarian organisation (OCHA) and the government said. In Bria alone, the violence has forced more than 40,000 people out of their homes, OCHA figures show, with more forced to flee in Tuesday’s fighting. “The warring parties burned villages and neighborhoods of Bria, forcing more of the population out with many fleeing into the bush,” local MP Arsene Kongbo told AFP yesterday.