The UN mission in the Central African Republic announced that it has opened an investigation into unconfirmed reports by Bangui of the killings of a dozen civilians attributed to local military and Russian paramilitaries.
The civil war, which began nine years ago, has considerably decreased in intensity since 2018 but, faced with a rebel offensive more than a year ago, the power received the reinforcement of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries to push it back, “mercenaries” from the private company Wagner according to the UN, France and NGOs that accuse both sides of committing crimes against civilians.
On April 11 and 12, in the villages of Gordil and Ndah, more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Bangui, elements of the “FACA (Central African Armed Forces) and their allies” (a term used by both the authorities and the UN to designate Russian paramilitaries) conducted an operation and killed “civilians,” security, humanitarian and administrative sources said on condition of anonymity.
Between 10 and 15 civilians were killed, according to the same sources.
“An investigation has been opened into this attack by Minusca,” the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, which has deployed some 14,000 blue helmets in the country since 2014, said its communications director, Charles Bambara. “UNMISCA will not make any further comment before the end of the investigations,” he added.
