Four people were killed Sunday by an explosive device as their motorcycle passed by in northwestern Central African Republic, which has been plagued by fighting between rebels and the army, the region’s prefect said Monday.
“A motorcycle was blown up on a landmine Sunday around 8 a.m. near the town of Yémé,” said Dieudonné Youngaïna, prefect of Ouham-Pendé, 600 km northwest of the capital Bangui. “Four people died and a baby was rescued,” he said.
“The mines are a real problem,” Youngaïna said.
“Between January and August 2021, 27 incidents involving explosive devices claimed the lives of at least 14 civilians and injured 21 civilians and two UN peacekeepers in the west of the country,” said Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Central African Republic, on September 10.
A Central African aid worker employed by a Danish NGO was killed on September 9 after his vehicle ran over an explosive device, also in the northwest of the country.
The civil war broke out in 2013 after a coup against President François Bozizé by an alliance of armed groups with a Muslim majority, the Séléka, and retaliation by so-called anti-balaka militias, dominated by Christians and animists, founded by the ousted head of State.
Bloody clashes between the two sides, in which civilians were the main victims, peaked in 2014 and 2015, and Séléka and anti-balaka were accused by the UN of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The civil war has significantly decreased in intensity since 2018, but armed groups, both ex-Séléka and anti-balaka, still occupied more than two-thirds of the Central African Republic at the end of 2020.