As Leaders Meet, Report Describes Chaos in Central African Republic
As European and African leaders were ending a two-day summit meeting in Brussels, fresh evidence emerged on Thursday of the bloodletting that has defied their ability to prevent the Central African Republic from descending into deeper chaos, prompting calls for a more powerful peacekeeping force to be deployed there.
Two days after the European Union said it had finalized details of a 1,000-member force to augment a total of 8,000 French and African peacekeepers, a report by Human Rights Watch documented more killings in remote areas by both Christian and Muslim militias.
In episodes in the southwest of the country, the report said, Christian militias known as anti-balaka had killed 72 Muslim men and boys, some as young as 9, in two attacks in February in the village of Guen. Days later, fighters from the Seleka, whose chaotic rule in the Central African Republic collapsed in January, joined with cattle herders to slaughter 19 people in the village of Yakongo 20 miles away.
“These horrendous killings show that the French and African Union peacekeeping deployment is not protecting villages from these deadly attacks,” said Lewis Mudge, a researcher for the organization. “The Security Council shouldn’t waste another minute in authorizing a United Nations peacekeeping mission with the troops and capacity to protect the country’s vulnerable people.”
He added: “Peacekeepers are providing security in the main towns, but smaller communities in the southwest are left exposed.|”
The Human Rights Watch report followed an assessment by the United Nations on Tuesday that the fighting had killed 60 people and injured more than 100 in the past 10 days.
The violence has forced almost 640,000 people to flee their homes, including more than 200,000 in Bangui, the capital. More than 80,000, mostly Muslims, have fled to neighboring countries.
“We are deeply concerned about the desperate plight of the people of the Central African Republic,” Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said in Brussels on Wednesday, adding that he would “urge all countries to strongly consider providing badly needed additional troops and police and providing funding and support.”
The summit brought together the European Union and many members of the African Union for their first formal encounter since a gathering in Libya in 2010, before the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The meeting was supposed to cover issues such as trade, immigration and the assertive role China is playing in African economies once dominated by Europe’s former colonial powers, but it was overshadowed by the chaos in the Central African Republic and lingering postcolonial sensitivities.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe had sought to organize a boycott of the gathering to protest European influence over the list of participants.
Mr. Mugabe and his wife, Grace, are restricted in their ability to travel to Western countries because of visa bans, part of European sanctions imposed in response to the Zimbabwean government’s human rights record. The Mugabes are routinely granted waivers to attend major international gatherings, but European officials said there was no program for spouses at the Brussels meeting, and Mrs. Mugabe was not invited.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa also announced that he would not attend the meeting of European Union and African Union countries, saying he had other commitments. Echoing Mr. Mugabe, he has publicly complained that African leaders are “looked on as subjects” and are told “who must come, who must not come.”
The organizers also withheld an invitation to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges.
The European Union provides about 45 percent of the official development aid to African countries and has played an increasingly prominent role in supporting peace missions there. Many European countries are eager to foster African economic growth that might dissuade migrants from seeking refuge in Europe, often after perilous voyages across the Mediterranean Sea.
On Wednesday, officials in Rome said the Italian Navy rescued 730 people aboard two packed vessels south of the island of Sicily. With mild spring weather bringing calm seas, the number of migrants from North Africa has increased sharply in recent weeks, and thousands of people have been rescued.
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