{"id":3712,"date":"2014-03-04T09:04:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T09:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=3712"},"modified":"2014-03-04T09:04:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T09:04:47","slug":"car-ex-minister-hacked-to-death-with-machetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=3712","title":{"rendered":"CAR ex-minister hacked to death with machetes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tit-for-tat<\/a>
Tit-for-tat violence has killed more than 2,000 people since December and forced about a million to flee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Muslim former minister has been\u00a0hacked to death by machete-wielding men in the capital of\u00a0the Central African Republic, as clashes escalated a\u00a0day after interim President Catherine Samba-Panza took office.<\/p>\n

At least nine other people were killed when bands of people,\u00a0some of them Christian self-defence groups, attacked and looted\u00a0shops in the mostly Muslim Miskine neighbourhood of Bangui on Friday,\u00a0witnesses said.<\/p>\n

Former minister Joseph Kalite, who once held the housing\u00a0portfolio, was stepping out of a taxi when he was attacked, a family member now in hiding told the Reuters news agency by phone.<\/p>\n

“The anti-balaka started attacking him with machetes and\u00a0sticks and they killed him,” said the relative, who requested anonymity. He added that a brother-in-law who was with Kalite at\u00a0the time of the attack managed to escape.<\/p>\n

The landlocked former French colony descended into chaos\u00a0last March when the Muslim rebel Seleka coalition seized power, unleashing a wave of killing and looting. That\u00a0triggered revenge attacks by Christian militia known as\u00a0“anti-balaka”, or “anti-machete”.<\/p>\n

The tit-for-tat violence has killed\u00a0more than\u00a02,000 people since\u00a0December, and forced about a million more – nearly a quarter of the population – to flee despite the deployment of about\u00a01,600 French troops and 5,000 African Union peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

The minister’s body was later recovered and taken to the Ali\u00a0Babolo Mosque where Reuters reporters saw the mutilated corpse.<\/p>\n

“He wasn’t even holding any function within the Seleka, he\u00a0was excluded by the Seleka, but as he was a Muslim official, they cowardly killed him because of that,” Mamoud Hissene,\u00a0vice president of a Muslim youth organisation, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

New government\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking advantage of the disbanding and disarming of some\u00a0Seleka forces, anti-balaka bands are carrying out revenge attacks on them and the minority Muslim population they accuse\u00a0of colluding with the Seleka.<\/p>\n

Anti-balaka militias began attacking and looting shops in\u00a0Miskine on Friday, prompting retaliation from Seleka fighters.<\/p>\n

Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard as residents ran\u00a0for cover.<\/p>\n

Central African Republic, one of Africa’s poorest countries\u00a0despite its mineral wealth, appointed Bangui mayor Samba-Panza as interim national leader this week.<\/p>\n

Its former President Michel Djotodia, head of the Seleka\u00a0coalition, stepped down on January 10 under intense international pressure.<\/p>\n

Samba-Panza is expected to appoint a new government in the\u00a0coming days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Aljazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Muslim former minister has been\u00a0hacked to death by machete-wielding men in the capital of\u00a0the Central African Republic, as clashes escalated a\u00a0day after interim President Catherine Samba-Panza took office. At least nine other people were killed when bands of people,\u00a0some of them Christian self-defence groups, attacked and looted\u00a0shops in the mostly Muslim Miskine neighbourhood of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}