A Central African aid worker employed by a Danish NGO was killed Thursday when his vehicle was hit by an explosive device in the north-west of the Central African Republic, in the grip of fighting between rebels and the army, the organization announced on Friday. September 10.
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Three other members of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), out of the eight occupants of two of its cars traveling in a convoy about 500 km north-west of Bangui, were "
slightly injured
" in the explosion. , added the NGO, without giving details on the circumstances of the tragedy or on the victims.
One of the vehicles "
struck an explosive device
," wrote DRC in a statement.
27 incidents involving explosive devices in 2021
The UN humanitarian coordinator in the Central African Republic, Denise Brown, said she was "
very shocked by the death of an aid worker
" in a statement, and "
strongly condemned the use of explosive devices
" which are causing many victims in this poor Central African country, the scene of a bloody civil war since 2013. “
Between January and August 2021, 27 incidents involving explosive devices claimed the lives of at least 14 civilians and injured 21 civilians and two peacekeepers United Nations in the west of the country,
”lamented Denise Brown.
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Civil war erupted in 2013 after a coup against President François Bozizé by an alliance of Muslim-majority armed groups, the Seleka, and reprisals launched by so-called anti-balaka militias, dominated by Christians and animists. , founded by the deposed head of state. Bloody clashes between the two camps, of which civilians were the main victims, peaked in 2014 and 2015, and Séléka and anti-balakas were accused by the UN of war crimes and against humanity.
The civil war has declined considerably in intensity since 2018, but armed groups, whether or not from the ex-Séléka and anti-balaka, still occupied more than two-thirds of the Central African Republic at the end of 2020. Some launched a rebellion in December against the power of President Faustin Archange Touadéra on the eve of the presidential election. The latter was finally re-elected on December 27 and his army, thanks to the support of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan soldiers, has today largely reconquered the territory.
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