Central African Republic: Seleka Rebels Raid Camp for Displaced People

L’Évêché displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro, Central African Republic, on September 29, 2016, two weeks before the Seleka attack.
L’Évêché displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro, Central African Republic, on September 29, 2016, two weeks before the Seleka attack.  © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
L’Évêché displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro Central African Republic, on October 19, 2016, one week after the Seleka attack
L’Évêché displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro Central African Republic, on October 19, 2016, one week after the Seleka attack © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
A man inspects his burned hut in L’Évêché displacement camp, Central African Republic, on October 12. Seleka forces burned at least 435 huts in the camp.
A man inspects his burned hut in L’Évêché displacement camp, Central African Republic, on October 12. Seleka forces burned at least 435 huts in the camp.  © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
A United Nations peacekeeper in Kaga-Bandoro, Central African Republic, looks out over the new displacement camp near the airstrip that formed after the October 12 attack.
A United Nations peacekeeper in Kaga-Bandoro, Central African Republic, looks out over the new displacement camp near the airstrip that formed after the October 12 attack.   © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
The new displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro, around the MINUSCA base and airstrip, where approximately 15,000 people sought shelter after the Seleka attack on October 12.
The new displacement camp in Kaga Bandoro, around the MINUSCA base and airstrip, where approximately 15,000 people sought shelter after the Seleka attack on October 12.  © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
© Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch
General Mahamt Al Khatim, military head of the Central African Patriotic Movement (Mouvement Patriotique pour la Centrafrique), a Seleka group in Kaga-Bandoro. Al Khatim told Human Rights Watch that his men were not involved in the attack on L’Évêché displacement camp on October 12, 2016. © Edouard Dropsy for Human Rights Watch

Seleka rebels armed with machetes and machine guns attacked and destroyed a camp for displaced people in the Central African Republic on October 12, 2016. They killed at least 37 civilians, wounded 57, and displaced thousands of others in and around the town of Kaga Bandoro.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 32 victims and witnesses in Kaga-Bandoro and in the country’s capital, Bangui. They said that the mostly Muslim Seleka forces, possibly with assistance from Muslim civilians, shot, stabbed or burned to death the civilians, including at least 4 women, 5 children, 3 older people, and 4 people with disabilities. Using satellite imagery analysis, Human Rights Watch identified at least 175 destroyed homes in the neighborhoods around the camp and 435 destroyed huts in the camp itself. 

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