Children 'beheaded and mutilated' in Central African Republic

<div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The UN agency for <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/children" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from the Guardian on Children">children</a> says attacks against children have reached new levels of viciousness in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/central-african-republic" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from the Guardian on Central African Republic">Central African Republic</a> (CAR), where fighting between <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/central-african-republic-atrocities-escalate-un" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias</a> left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced an estimated 400,000 in Bangui, the capital, this month.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Unicef, at least at least two children have been beheaded, and one of them mutilated, in the violence that has gripped Bangui since early December.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="283" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR_vECSwSTh-bxQWu5BJOOHjz_pb35yFLmGi0YjWwzi_lp-zxSo" width="400" /></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div> <!-- Begin BidVertiser code --><br /> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT><br /> <noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript><br /> <!-- End BidVertiser code --> <br /> <div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We are witnessing unprecedented levels of violence against children. More and more children are being recruited into armed groups, and they are also being directly targeted in atrocious revenge attacks," said Souleymane Diabate, Unicef representative in CAR. "Targeted attacks against children are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and must stop immediately. Concrete action is needed now to prevent violence against children."</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unicef and its partners say they have verified the killings of at least 16 children, and injuries among 60, since the outbreak of communal violence in Bangui on 5 December. In November, the UN warned that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/25/central-african-republic-human-rights-watch-commander-abdallah-hamat" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">the number of child soldiers</a> in the former French colony had more than doubled to up to 6,000 as anti-balaka militias have sprung up to counterattacks by the Seleka.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Diabate said armed groups were accountable for taking specific measures to provide protection to children. These include: clear directives by those in positions of authority within armed forces and groups to halt violations against children, meaning that children must not be recruited into the fighting, nor targeted. Unicef also called for the immediate release of children associated with armed forces and groups, and their protection from reprisals. Transit centres set up for the release and reintegration of children must also be protected from attacks.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div> <!-- Begin BidVertiser code --><br /> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT><br /> <noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript><br /> <!-- End BidVertiser code --> <br /> <div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some 370,000 people – almost half the population of Bangui – have been displaced to dozens of sites across the capital over the past three weeks. About 785,000 people have been internally displaced throughout the country since the outbreak of violence more than a year ago.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the medical charity, said on Monday that fighting, lynchings and violent attacks remained a daily occurrence in Bangui, and the situation in the city appeared to be out of control, despite the presence of international armed forces in the capital.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1565627!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/525740189.jpg" /></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We have been receiving more patients with serious injuries at the Hôpital Communautaire in the last few days," said Laurent Sury, MSF's emergency co-ordinator in Bangui. "People are coming in with machete wounds to the head, hands and arms – injuries sustained as they tried to defend themselves. We've also seen people who have been stabbed, sometimes multiple times, in the abdomen, and people who have been either tortured or brutally beaten. We have even had a case of impalement. For the most part, these are young men."</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MSF said health facilities had been affected by the violence, hindering the provision of medical aid. On Sunday, a ministry of health ambulance was stopped and the staff were threatened with violence, preventing them from collecting the wounded. On the same day, armed men entered the Hôpital Communautaire with the intention of lynching patients, while health staff were threatened.</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The atmosphere is getting increasingly tense with each of these 'visits', as the attackers become more and more aggressive and angry," said Thomas Curbillon, MSF's head of mission in Bangui. "It is totally unacceptable that health facilities are not being respected and are being invaded by armed people who constitute a threat to patients and staff. The insecurity and the gunfire in different areas, especially around the hospital, impede people's ability to move around."</span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Source: </span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/30/children-beheaded-mutilated-central-african-republic-violence-unicef"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/dec/30/children-beheaded-mutilated-central-african-republic-violence-unicef</span></a></div><!-- BEGIN TAG - DO NOT MODIFY --><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ epom_key = "585a1f37f0a87ff49f68b4ff36bf96f4"; epom_channel = ""; epom_code_format = "ads"; epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com"; epom_click = ""; epom_custom_params = {}; epom_width = "728"; epom_height = "90"; epom_sandbox_configuration = "allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation"; document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 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Children 'beheaded and mutilated' in Central African Republic

The UN agency for  children  says attacks against children have reached new levels of viciousness in the  Central African Republic  (CAR), w...

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935,000 displaced in Central African Republic amid ‘unprecedented’ violence

<div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Targeted attacks against children, looting and burning of houses have been reported in the ongoing sectarian violence in Central African Republic by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR. Hundreds of thousands have fled to refugee camps or hidden in the bush.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Violence between mostly Muslim ex-rebel Seleka members, whose leader seized power last March, and Christian vigilante groups “has pushed the number of internally displaced people (IDP) past 935,000 and is hampering humanitarian aid efforts” in Central African Republic (CAR), UNHCR reported on Friday.<br /> <br /> The international agency is struggling to gain access to some 45,000 of the displaced in the capital Bangui alone. According to UNHCR, a total of 510,000 people – more half of the city’s population – are sheltering in 67 sites in Bangui, or have moved to live with host families.<br /> <br /> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Targeted attacks against civilians, looting and the presence of armed elements at some displacement sites have severely limited humanitarian agencies’ access to those in need of urgent assistance,”</em> a UNHCR spokesman said.<br /> <br /> Some 60 per cent of those displaced are children, the refugee agency has estimated.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="article_img" style="color: white; float: none; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="A man walks past burning houses in Bossangoa, north of Bangui January 2, 2014. (Reuters/Andreea Campeanu)" src="http://rt.com/files/news/21/b9/f0/00/bo-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><br /> <div class="article_img_footer" style="bottom: 0px; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.800000190734863px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.8875122070313px;"><br /> </div> <!-- Begin BidVertiser code --><br /> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT><br /> <noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript><br /> <!-- End BidVertiser code --> <br /> </div><br /> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to UNHCR, since the latest spate of violence in CAR broke out in December, many of the people have gone into <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“hiding in the bush, fearing fresh attacks.”</em> Others have left for neighboring African countries, with the estimated global number of refugees from CAR reaching 240,000 by end of December.<br /> <br /> The UN agency has been scaling up its presence in the country and has requested $152.2 million for a 100-day humanitarian plan.<br /> <br /> Earlier, the international children rights group UNICEF said in a statement on its website that there have been <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“unprecedented levels of violence against children”</em> in CAR, with at least two children reportedly beheaded at the end of the year.<br /> <br /> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“More and more children are being recruited into armed groups, and they are also being directly targeted in atrocious revenge attacks,”</em> UNICEF Representative in CAR, Souleymane Diabate, said.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">UNICEF has confirmed the killings of at least 16 children by December 30, saying that 60 more had been injured and demanding that the attacks immediately stop.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="article_img" style="color: white; float: none; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Displaced refugees are seen in a camp in an airport in Bangui December 15, 2013. (Reuters/Emmanuel Braun) " src="http://rt.com/files/news/21/b9/f0/00/ac-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; float: none; height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><br /> <div class="article_img_footer" style="bottom: 0px; left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 6.800000190734863px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 673.8875122070313px;"><br /> </div></div> <!-- Begin BidVertiser code --><br /> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://bdv.bidvertiser.com/BidVertiser.dbm?pid=579098%26bid=1449088" type="text/javascript"></SCRIPT><br /> <noscript><a href="http://www.bidvertiser.com/bdv/BidVertiser/bdv_advertiser.dbm">marketing</a></noscript><br /> <!-- End BidVertiser code --> <br /> <br /> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doctors Without Borders recently reported another fatal incident involving a minor, with doctor Gaetan Adouaka saying that a 12-year-old died from a gash on his skull. The group’s mission has faced uncertainty since attackers have also started targeting hospitals and refugee camps, according to Karline Kleijer, the emergency manager of Doctors Without Borders.<br /> <br /> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The hospitals… are invaded by armed man, we have people with grenades in the hospital, who came there to attack patients inside the hospital,”</em> Kleijer told RT, adding that many people hiding in the bush are also “too scared” to seek medical or humanitarian aid.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read more from the source:</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://rt.com/news/car-displaced-violence-children-143/"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://rt.com/news/car-displaced-violence-children-143/</span></a></div><!-- BEGIN TAG - DO NOT MODIFY --><br /> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ epom_key = "585a1f37f0a87ff49f68b4ff36bf96f4"; epom_channel = ""; epom_code_format = "ads"; epom_ads_host = "//www.adshost2.com"; epom_click = ""; epom_custom_params = {}; epom_width = "728"; epom_height = "90"; epom_sandbox_configuration = "allow-forms, allow-pointer-lock, allow-popups, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation"; document.write("<script type='text\/javascript' src='"+(location.protocol == 'https:' ? 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935,000 displaced in Central African Republic amid ‘unprecedented’ violence

Targeted attacks against children, looting and burning of houses have been reported in the ongoing sectarian violence in Central African Rep...

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