CAR Violence: Harrowing Stories From Conflict

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 15 Januari 2014 | 03.46

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent

The most senior Muslim leader in the Central African Republic is to travel to Britain in a few days' time to appeal for help from Prime Minister David Cameron as religious attacks raged on in the poverty-stricken country.

The attacks have continued unabated despite last Friday's sudden resignation of the country's first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia.

Sky News accompanied Imam Oumar Kobine Layama as he visited Muslim neighbourhoods in the capital Bangui surrounded by armed guards, and saw hundreds of families cowering in fear in deserted schools and mosques.

"We are forgotten by the French troops," one young man shouted at us.

Another told us: "This is genocide, a big genocide.

"We have Christians living with us and we protect the Christians, but if a Muslim walks downtown then he will be killed."

Tears fell down the cheeks of a 50-year-old Muslim woman as she told us how she witnessed her husband and her son being slaughtered by the Christian anti-balaka militia.

Victims of the conflict in Central African Republic These Christian men were filmed cutting pages of what looked like the Koran

Since the attack a month ago, she has been sheltering  with her two younger sons in the courtyard of a school along with about 40 other families.

They are desperate conditions and the fear is palpable.

Adam Ahamat shook violently as he told us how he witnessed Christian gangs burning his wife and two babies alive.

He said: "They locked the door of our home and then torched it.

"I've lost my life, I don't know what to do."

Mr Ahamat is still recovering from a machete attack on him as he tried to save his family.

He has slash wounds, but it is the emotional scars which will take a lot longer to heal.

But the Christians are suffering too.

More than a million Central Africans - both Muslims and Christians - are now living crowded in multiple camps and separated largely on religious lines, surviving in deplorable conditions where disease is now thriving.

Victims of the conflict in Central African Republic Adam Ahamat said his wife and two babies were burned alive

A Christian woman said: "These are terrible conditions. We're abandoned here and we're still being threatened by the Muslim Seleka bandits."

We see several mosques which have been destroyed in the orgy of violence and vandalism which led up to the resignation of Mr Djotodia.

A group of Christian youths carrying machetes tell us proudly they took part in the destruction of the Muslim holy place we are looking at.

There are loose pages of what looks like the Koran still laying on the ground, and the youths pick them up and slice them with their machetes.

"It's the end of Muslims in this country," a young man said.

"Can you live in peace again?" I ask one of the machete-wielding men.

"Yes," he says. "We have lived side-by-side for decades but we need some help from  outside, I don't see anyone in the Central African Republic can sort it on their own."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202


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