A Muslim former minister has been hacked to death by machete-wielding men in the capital of the Central African Republic, 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 on Friday, witnesses said.
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 the Reuters news agency 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.
The landlocked former French colony descended into chaos last March when the Muslim rebel Seleka coalition seized power, 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 more than 2,000 people since December, and forced about a million more – nearly a quarter of the population – to flee despite the deployment of about 1,600 French troops and 5,000 African Union peacekeepers.
The minister’s body was later recovered and taken to the Ali Babolo Mosque where Reuters reporters saw the mutilated corpse.
“He wasn’t even holding any function within the Seleka, he was excluded by the Seleka, but as he was a Muslim official, they cowardly killed him because of that,” Mamoud Hissene, vice president of a Muslim youth organisation, told Reuters.
Taking advantage of the disbanding and disarming of some Seleka forces, anti-balaka bands are carrying out revenge attacks on them and the minority Muslim population they accuse of colluding with the Seleka.
Anti-balaka militias began attacking and looting shops in Miskine on Friday, prompting retaliation from Seleka fighters.
Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard as residents ran for cover.
Central African Republic, one of Africa’s poorest countries despite its mineral wealth, appointed Bangui mayor Samba-Panza as interim national leader this week.
Its former President Michel Djotodia, head of the Seleka coalition, stepped down on January 10 under intense international pressure.
