An armed group executed at least 32 civilians and captured fighters in the lawless heart of Central African Republic in December, Human Rights Watch said today.
"In the town of Bakala, rebels from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC) on December 12, executed 25 people after calling them to a school for an alleged meeting," the global watchdog body reported.
"Earlier that day, UPC fighters executed seven men who were returning from a nearby gold mine. Accounts of the incidents were provided by a survivor and eight witnesses, including five men who were forced to help dispose of the bodies," the statement added.
HRW Africa researcher Lewis Mudge denounced the slaughter as "brazen war crimes by UPC fighters who feel free to kill at will."
Bakala lies in the central Ouaka province, where clashes are frequent between rival factions of the ex-Seleka, a mainly Muslim rebel coalition that seized power in March 2013, to be officially disbanded six months later.
Atrocities by Seleka forces led to the rise of armed anti-balaka ("anti-machete") militias largely drawn from the deeply poor nation's Christian minority. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes in a conflict whose main victims were civilians.
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