On March 30, president-elect Faustin-Archange Touadera will take office in the Central African Republic. His task, to quell the brutal sectarian violence that has torn his country apart, got even harder in recent weeks. Renewed violence in and around Bambari, in the center of the country, has resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people. Without urgent action, there is most likely more to come.
The latest violence followed a familiar pattern. On February 27, a Muslim ethnic Peuhl cattle herder was found dead in Liwa, a village 10 kilometers outside Bambari. The discovery unleashed a wave of violence and reprisal attacks against Christians and others. In Gbouloulou, a village near Bambari, five armed Peuhl shot a woman in the head as she worked in her fields, in view of her 9 year-old son. He and some other children escaped, but two elderly women working nearby were hacked to death by machete. Later, two Peuhl herders were killed while moving their cattle.
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