AP: More than 5,000 dead

in C. African Republic
In this April 15, 2014 photo, an Anti!ala"a Christian #$hter stands on the front of a
looted Musli% store in &uen, so%e 250 "ilo%eters north of !an$ui, Central African
Republic. As '.(. peace"eepers prepare to $o into the Central African Republic to ta"e
o)er a re$ional %ission, the death toll since #$htin$ bet*een Musli%s and Christians
started in +ece%ber underscores ho* the aid is co%in$ too late for thousands of
)icti%s. ,-ero%e +ela./Associated Press0
!. Associated Press 1epte%ber 12 at
12:11 PM
GUEN, Central African Republic There are no headstones to mark these graves, no
loving ords, nothing to tell the orld ho lies in these to giant pits full of bodies, or
h!" #et a handful of village elders are determined that nobod! ill be forgotten"
These old men, their e!es clouded b! cataracts and their ears hacked b! machete
blades, sit on dirt! stra mats at a church and gather the names of the dead from
broken survivors" The! rite each name carefull! in Arabic ith faded blue ink on
lined paper, neatl! folded and stored in the pocket of one man$s tattered kaftan" The
list is four pages long"
At least %,&'( people have died in Central African Republic since fighting beteen
)uslims and Christians started in *ecember, according to an Associated +ress tall!
gleaned from more than %, of the hardest-hit communities and the capital, .angui"
That$s ell more than double the death toll of about /,,,, cited b! the United Nations
back in April, hen it approved a peacekeeping mission" The deaths have mounted
steadil! since, ith no official record"
As the U"N" prepares to go into the Central African Republic ne0t eek, the death toll
underscores ho the aid is coming too late for thousands of victims" The about /,,,,
e0tra troops to boost African forces fall short of the almost 1,,,, authori2ed in April,
ith the rest e0pected b! earl! /,&%" #et the conflict has turned out to be far more
deadl! than it as then, and arnings of potential mass carnage from former coloni2er
3rance and from the U"N" itself have gone unheeded"
The international communit! said it anted to put a stop to the genocide that as in
the making" .ut months later, the ar has not stopped, 4 sa!s 5oseph .indoumi,
president of the Central African 6uman Rights 7eague, ho collects handritten
testimonies from relatives stapled together ith photos of their slain loved ones"
8n the contrar!, it has gotten orse" Toda!, tons that ere not under severe threat
back in April have become the sites of true disasters"9
:::
.oth life and death often go unrecorded in Central African Republic, a countr! of about
;"( million that has long teetered on the edge of anarch!" Nobod! knos <ust ho
man! people have died in the grinding ethnic violence, and even the A+ tall! is almost
certainl! a fraction of the real toll"
The A+ counted bodies and gathered numbers from do2ens of survivors, priests,
imams, human rights groups and local Red Cross orkers, including those in a vast,
remote sath of the est that makes up a third of the countr!" )an! deaths here ere
not officiall! counted because the region is still dangerous and can barel! be reached in
torrential rains" 8thers ere left out b! overhelmed aid orkers but registered at
mos=ues and at private Christian funerals"
The U"N" is not recording civilian deaths on its on, unlike in >ra= or Afghanistan, for
e0ample" And it took months to gather troops from different countries for the mission,
hich ill take over from regional peacekeeping forces on ?ept" &%, said ?tephane
*u<arric, spokesman for the secretar!-general"
)obili2ing troops for peacekeeping mission takes time because it$s not like the!$re
aiting in Ne #ork for us,9 *u<arric said @ednesda!" 4@e have to go knock on doors
for troops, for e=uipment, helicopters"""9
The conflict started hen )uslim rebels captured the capital last )arch, for the first
time since independence from 3rance in &A(," The rebels, knon as the ?eleka, killed
hundreds, possibl! thousands of Christians, leaving families to push the bodies of their
loved ones to cemeteries in heelbarros and carts" Even hen Christian militias
forced the rebels to ithdra in late 5anuar!, the! killed as the! ent"
>n the tin! Christian village of N2akoun, here the onl! sounds after dark are of
crickets and the occasional mango dropping on a rooftop, the roar of vehicles oke up
&B-!ear-old )a0imin 7assanan!ant in the dead of night in earl! 3ebruar!" ?oon the
gunshots rang out" The ?eleka had come"
The rebels set abla2e more than to do2en houses" Then the! ent door-to-door,
killing villagers and stealing ever!thing the! hadn$t destro!ed"
)a0imin stumbled out of the hut here he slept ith his mother and to siblings into
the darkness, ith onl! the moon to light his path" 6e hid for to da!s in the bush,
petrified" 6e pra!ed that his famil! as <ust hiding someplace else"
Then the other survivors from the village found him" The! told him it as time to come
home and bur! his famil!" The stones of his home still reeked of blood, caked on the
ground and the alls inside"
No it is onl! )a0imin and his father, a traumati2ed man of fe ords, ho remain,
along ith another brother ho as aa! that fateful night" The bo!$s hands shake as
he tries to rite don the names of his famil!" 6e cannot bring himself to sa! them
aloud"
A village chief has hand-printed the names of // buried victims on a eathered piece
of paper from a classroom notebook" )a0imin$s mother, Rachel, is No" && on the list of
females, and his %-!ear-old sister 3ani is No" &B" 6is 1-!ear-old brother .oris is on the
list of males" A separate list details the homes destro!ed, the people missing"
The sound of an unknon vehicle passing in N2akoun still sends families fleeing back
into the forest"
:::
>t as onl! a matter of time sometimes <ust hours before the Christians took
revenge"
The mounting hatred as fuelled in part b! economic resentment" )uslims make up
about &% percent of the population, compared to Christians at %, percent, !et )uslims
ran the merchant class and the lucrative diamond business" As Christian militias took
back control of ton after ton, the! unleashed a violence believed to have left several
thousands dead, mostl! )uslims"
?oon after dan one morning, Christian fighters stormed the outskirts of Guen, a ton
ith a si2eable )uslim population because of the diamond mining nearb!" The!
attacked the brick homes of )uslims, identifiable b! fences traditionall! put up all
around them, and killed men in front of their children"
@e have suffered under the ?eleka and no it is !our turn,9 the! screamed at the
)uslims"
@ithin hours, /B people ere dead"
?everal da!s later, the Christian fighters stormed a house in ton here do2ens of
)uslim men and bo!s had sought refuge" A fe escaped" The rest ere herded at
gunpoint to a shad! lan beneath to large mango trees, recalls a survivor"
6ere the terrified victims ere ordered to lie on their stomachs" Then the militia
leader, armed ith a Calashnikov rifle, began shooting them, one b! one" 6e ordered
his fighters to finish off the ounded ith machete blos to the head"
>n the end, ;B people ere slain under the mango trees, including to &&-!ear-old
bo!s"
A &,-!ear-old and a &B-!ear-old survived onl! b! l!ing still amid the blood! corpses
until darkness fell" Then the! ran for their lives to a nearb! ton, according to other
survivors, including the mother of one of the bo!s"
The lives of three )uslims in ton ere sparedD The! ere the ones ho transported
the bludgeoned bodies to to mass graves on a ooden stretcher, still stained ith
blood months later"
A villager named Abakar lost four of his sons that da!, all beteen the ages of && and
&(" The thought of his bo!s aaiting certain death has him sobbing so hard he cannot
speak" Even no he ill onl! give his first name because he is so afraid that the
militants ill hunt him don"
Each night before > go to sleep > pra! to God that > don$t have nightmares about that
da!,9 he chokes out beteen his sobs"
To communit! leaders both Christians pleaded for the lives of the bo!s and men
that da! in Guen" The! ere told the! too ould be slain if the! did not leave" The!
could not eat or sleep for da!s" 4@hat more could e doE9 the! no sa! to each other,
over and over"
Edmond .eina, the local leader of a Christian militia, is unrepentant" Ever!one killed
that da! as a ?eleka )uslim rebel, he sa!s" Even the children"
Toda!, pages from hol! Furans blo through the grass at the house here the bo!s
tried to hide" The! are the onl! reminder of those ho died"
:::
The violence is no bubbling up in previousl! stable corners, hitting both Christians
and )uslims" >n .ambari, northeast of the capital, at least &;A people ere killed in
5une and 5ul! alone, according to itnesses, including about &1 Christians sheltering
at a Catholic church compound" And in the )bres area in the north, )uslim rebels left
at least B; people dead in August"
About /,,,,, )uslims are trapped in isolated communities across the nation, despite
a mass e0odus earlier this !ear, according to a U"N" report in August" Among them is
?aidou .ouba, ho aits outside the ma!or$s office in the ton of .oda"
.ouba had spent his entire life in this diamond ton south of the capital" .ut hen the
Christian militia fighters burned his house don in earl! 3ebruar!, the ;(-!ear-old
herder kne it as time to leave"
?o he and his famil! <oined a group of B; )uslim refugees heading for Cameroon" The!
took ith them all their savings some B,, cattle to start a ne life"
About B1 miles outside ton, the! stopped to rest beneath a tree" There, a group of
heavil! armed men on foot, earing traditional )uslim clothing, opened fire on the
crod"
.ouba shouted in disbeliefD 4@h! are !ou tr!ing to harm !our fello )uslimsE9
.ut the! ere not )uslims" The! ere Christian fighters earing the clothes of their
last victims" 47ie don, dogsG9 the men shouted"
The last thing .ouba remembers is being knocked unconscious ith a machete blo to
the head"
@hen he aoke, he as surrounded b! the bodies of his to ives and five children"
)ama and Abdoula!e, both <ust B !ears old, Nafissa and Rassida, (, and )ariam, ',
ere all dead, their tin! heads bashed in ith machetes"
8nl! .ouba and one other man survived" The! sat among the B/ bodies for an entire
da! in shock before making their a! back to ton"
> put ever!thing no in the hands of God,9 he sa!s softl!, his face and head still
scarred b! machete ounds from that aful da!" 46e gave m! famil! to me and then
he took them aa!"9
There are grieving fathers ever!here in this tin! enclaveD Abakar 6issein has lost to
sons, both shot to death, Ahmat earlier this !ear in .angui and Ali on Aug" /, in .oda"
6issein carried Ali$s bod! back in his on arms" 6is ife has been missing for five
months he thinks she has made it to neighboring Chad and does not kno !et
another son is dead"
Even in death, there is no peace for the victims"
Earlier this summer, a )uslim man as buried at a cemeter! in .oda, <ust a mile aa!
from the 2one here )uslims are barricaded"
7ater that evening, after the sun set, his bod! as dug up from the ground and set on
fire"
:::
Associated +ress riter ?teve Niko in .oda, Central African Republic and Edith )"
7ederer at the United Nations contributed to this report"
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3ollo Crista 7arson at httpsDHH"titter"comHklarsonafrica
Cop!right /,&; The Associated +ress" All rights reserved" This material ma! not be
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+osted b! Thavam