Central African Republic: War Crimes by Ex-Seleka Rebels

Hold Commander Accountable for Attack on Town

Residents inject ravaged Camp Bangui following an attack on November Ten, 2013.

© two thousand thirteen Human Rights Witness

(Bangui) – Former Seleka rebel fighters who have been nominally integrated into the national army pillaged and burned a petite town in the Central African Republic on November Ten, 2013. The transitional government, led by Interim President Michel Djotodia, should instantaneously suspend and investigate the military commander who organized the attack.

On November Ten, Human Rights Witness spotted Gen. Abdallah Hamat, the military commander of a large section of Ombella-Mpoko province, amass his boys in the town of Gaga to join an attack against a local armed group, known as the anti-balaka, near the town of Camp Bangui. Four days later, Human Rights Observe reached Camp Bangui and found it totally demolished. Survivors in Camp Bangui said that Seleka compels were responsible for the devastation. Hamat and another senior military officer acknowledged that their coerces had been at Camp Bangui and there had been combat, causing some harm.

“The case of General Hamat is a test for President Djotodia, who has said he won’t tolerate lawlessness by compels under his guideline,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Witness. “Unless the government takes steps to investigate and prosecute those responsible, these types of attacks will keep happening.”

Hamat and former Seleka fighters have committed serious manhandles in Camp Bangui and should face justice, Human Right Observe said.

Owing to insecurity in the area, Human Rights Witness was not able to confirm the death toll from Camp Bangui, nor the details of the fighting. However, residents said that three dead bods found after the attack were all civilians. The death toll is most likely higher.

The Seleka, a predominantly Muslim rebel coalition led by Djotodia, overthrew former President François Bozizé on March 24. A September Human Rights Witness report details the Seleka’s deliberate killing of civilians – including women, children, and the elderly – inbetween March and June and confirms the wanton destruction of more than 1,000 homes, both in the capital, Bangui, and the provinces.

In an apparent attempt to distance himself from these manhandles, Djotodia on September thirteen officially disbanded the Seleka, some of whose members are believed to be Chadian and Sudanese. Former Seleka rebels have nominally integrated into a fresh “national army,” but instruction and control remain questionable. The group, now referred to as ex-Seleka, resumes to commit manhandles in the Central African Republic.

Human Rights See travelled to the Ombella-Mpoko province on November ten to investigate the killing of civilians and the searing of homes during an October battle inbetween ex-Seleka and anti-balaka coerces in Gaga. The anti-balaka – armed groups created by then-President Bozizé to fight banditry – are predominantly Christian and include some soldiers who served under Bozizé in the Central African Armed Compels (FACA). In latest weeks, violence and insecurity in the Central African Republic have taken on an alarming sectarian dimension, as the anti-balaka attack Muslim civilians in response to ex-Seleka manhandles.

Early in the morning of November Ten, ex-Seleka fighters in Gaga, as they were leaving on motorcycles, told Human Rights See that they were “going to Camp Bangui to fight the anti-balaka.” Later that day General Hamat arrived in Gaga with about twelve boys. He was followed by one of his officers, Col. Ahmed Akhtahir, who also came with another dozen boys.

In Gaga, Hamat requisitioned motorcycles from local transporters. He then requested fuel and “donations” from the local Muslim population, asking an assembled crowd in Arabic: “Are there no loyal Muslims here to donate fuel so we can fight the enemy?” After collecting fuel and money, Hamat and Akhtahir led their compels on motorcycles on a road through a remote area of dense vegetation leading to Camp Bangui, at least twenty five kilometers from Gaga and accessible only by motorcycle.

The following day, November 11, when Human Rights See sought to confirm reports in Gaga of a fresh attack on Camp Bangui, Commandant Ibrahiem Yusef discouraged Human Rights Witness from following “our boys who went to Camp Bangui yesterday” and reporting on the incident.

Three days later, Human Rights See visited Camp Bangui and discovered one corpse on the road into town and the smell of decomposing remains. Once at Camp Bangui, Human Rights Observe found a town laid to waste. People had fled their homes without time to pack. Chairs were overturned, and cooking pots remained on burned-out fires. The center of the town had been entirely pillaged, and the vast majority of homes, sheltering three hundred to four hundred families, had been burned.

Albeit most of the town had been abandoned, a few members of the local population remained. The residents’ accounts consistently described an attack by Hamat’s compels.

One man told Human Rights Observe, “The Seleka came on Sunday morning. We heard shooting from the direction of the football field. They fired into the village and the civilians fled.” Another resident said, “The moment we heard the shooting we ran for the pubic hair. We had no time to prepare our bags.”

There were many burned homes, as well as ruined food, motorcycles, clothes, and furniture. One woman told Human Rights Witness, “They took everything of value that they could and they burned the rest.” Casings from attack rifles and grenade fragments littered the ground.

A resident of Camp Bangui confirmed that some studs from the village returned fire on Hamat’s studs with homemade hunting rifles. It is not clear if the fellows were anti-balaka, but the local armed group did have a strong presence in a nearby village.

The surviving population of the town is now living in the thicket near the town without housing, medicine, or even the possibility of humanitarian support. The brunt on the town violated international humanitarian law prohibitions against attacks against civilians and destruction and looting of civilian property. Those who carried out or ordered the attacks are responsible for war crimes.

“Without further investigation, the number of people who died at Camp Bangui will never be known,” said Bekele. “Attacks like these on populated areas are causing massive devastation and fear among the population of the Central African Republic.”

On November 15, Human Rights Witness met with Col. Idriss Ahamat, the commanding officer of Gaga under General Hamat. He told the researcher that there had been a battle in Camp Bangui: “Some anti-balaka hid in the houses and those houses had to be burned.” When asked how many houses had been burned he replied, “Many… 200, maybe 300.” He later said that the houses had been burned inadvertently by bullets touching the grass roofs. When pressed by Human Rights Witness on the possibility of two hundred homes burned by bullets, he replied, “Maybe it was only twenty or thirty houses burned… sometimes when a fire is searing it can leap from one house to the next when they are close together.”

Human Rights See met with General Hamat on November fifteen in Bangui. The general said he was at Camp Bangui on November Ten, but he downplayed the harm: “Arriving at Camp Bangui there was a combat and some houses were bruised. It was not many, maybe four homes were burned. I was there after the attack on Camp Bangui. I spotted this with my own eyes.”

Hamat dismissed allegations that his troops engaged in attacks on civilians or their property, telling Human Rights Witness: “My elements do not have the right to cause disorder. If they do, I will sanction them… I want peace. I want people to comeback to their homes.”

Human Rights Witness observed a large number of what appeared to be child soldiers in Hamat’s ranks. Asked aboutthe age of one evidently very youthfull soldier carrying a Kalashnikov onslaught rifle, Commandant Yusef confirmed he was eight years old and “a good shooter.” When asked about why he would use children so youthfull in combat, Yusef replied, “Adults get worried and sometimes you have to give them drugs, but children just attack without retreating.”

Human Rights Observe also met with Djotodia in November and asked him about any efforts he had taken to halt manhandles by his army and by ex-Seleka fighters. He said, “I can’t deny that some of these things happened, but those who are responsible will be disciplined.”

“The transitional government needs to rein in its coerces instantaneously and bring to justice those overseeing these horrific manhandles,” Bekele said. “With this evidence, Djotodia can’t say he didn’t know about this attack. He should suspend Hamat before the general wreaks more havoc on the populace and should investigate and prosecute all those responsible for the Camp Bangui attack.”

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