By Joanne Mariner, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International
In Bangui’s Nguingo neighbourhood, up the Oubangui river from the city center, people are scared.
“There are rumors that the anti-balaka are going to attack again this afternoon,” a local resident told me when I visited there on Wednesday.
“They want to teach us a lesson.”
Over the past year, the Central African Republic has become notorious for the intensity of its sectarian violence. After the majority-Muslim Seleka government left power in January 2014, a wave of ethnic cleansing swept the country, leaving much of the territory entirely empty of Muslims. Thousands were killed. The seleka have also been responsible for serious abuses in various parts of the country including in the capital Bangui.