World Forum

The United Nations refugee agency warned today that the violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has sent thousands of people streaming into neighbouring countries, while the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced plans to open a preliminary investigation into alleged war crimes being committed amid the ongoing sectarian bloodshed.

A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said nearly 9,000 people – most Central Africans but also foreign nationals from Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mali – have fled CAR for neighbouring Cameroon.

“That brings the number of CAR refugees in Cameroon to more than 20,000 since fighting started,” Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba told reporters in Geneva, adding that the new arrivals told UNHCR that they fled because of confrontations between the former Séléka and anti-Balaka militiamen in the capital, Bangui.

“Others fled because of fear that the anti-Balaka militiamen were advancing towards their areas,” she added. Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in CAR, and 2.2 million, about half the population, need humanitarian aid in a conflict which erupted when mainly Muslim Séléka rebels launched attacks in December 2012 and has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones as mainly Christian militias known as anti-Balaka (anti-machete) have taken up arms. Nearly half a million children are among the almost 1 million driven from their homes.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47104&Cr=central+african+republic&Cr1=#.UvU8RW1KTYs