BANGUI, (Reuters) – A Muslim former minister was hacked to death by machete-wielding militiamen in the capital of the Central African Republic yesterday, as clashes escalated a day after interim President Catherine Samba-Panza took office.
At least nine other people were killed when bands of people, some of them Christian self-defence groups, attacked and looted shops in the mostly Muslim Miskine neighbourhood of Bangui, witnesses said.
The landlocked former French colony descended into chaos last March when the Muslim rebel Seleka coalition marched into the capital, unleashing a wave of killing and looting. That triggered revenge attacks by Christian militia known as “anti-balaka”, or “anti-machete”.
The tit-for-tat violence has killed over 2,000 since December, and forced about a million people – nearly a quarter of the population – to flee despite the deployment of about 1,600 French troops and 5,000 African Union peacekeepers.
Former minister Joseph Kalite, who once held the housing portfolio, was stepping out of a taxi when he was attacked, a family member now in hiding told Reuters by phone.
“The anti-balaka started attacking him with machetes and sticks and they killed him,” said the relative, who requested anonymity. He added that a brother-in-law who was with Kalite at the time of the attack managed to escape.
