Central African Republic
A new armed group has emerged in the Central African Republic after killing at least 50 civilians and displaced around 17,000, the Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
The group is known as “Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation”, or 3R.
The rights group claim that the group appeared in late 2015 to protect the minority Peul population, who are mostly Muslim cattle herders, from attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias. It now has hundreds of well-armed fighters who control territory near Cameroon’s border.
The group has also burned villages and raped women and girls in an apparent bid to punish local communities for perceived anti-balaka support
Since France ended a 3-year peacekeeping mission in October, maintaining security has fallen largely to MINUSCA, a 13,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force that civilians say does not do enough to protect them.
Go to video
Liberia: Boakai signs decree for war crimes tribunal
01:46
Thousands of desperate people still fleeing Sudan's war into South Sudan
01:04
UN concerned by reports of imminent attack in Sudan's North Darfur region
02:00
Sudan war: risk of famine looms
02:31
Sudan's civil war enters its first year: Famine looms large
Go to video
Liberian senators back creation of war and economic crimes court