13 Killed In Run-up To Latest C.Africa Peace Bid

Thirteen people were killed in a weekend attack in the west of Central African Republic, just days before the opening of peace talks, local and UN sources said on Tuesday

Bangui, Central African Republic, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2019 ) :Thirteen people were killed in a weekend attack in the west of Central African Republic, just days before the opening of peace talks, local and UN sources said on Tuesday.

"There were 13 deaths, including a pastor and a gendarme. We went to the site to confirm the facts," said a UN source, confirming a report from a source close to the Fulani herder community.

"The violence was started by armed Fulanis," said Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for MINUSCA, the UN's mission in CAR, referring to an ethnic group widespread across West Africa, who traditionally breed livestock.

A joint patrol of UN troops and Internal Security Forces (FSI) had gone to Zaoro Sangou, the village where the violence took place on Sunday, he said.

The UN source said the perpetrators were believed to be Fulani from the so-called 3R group ("return, reclamation, reconciliation").

3R emerged in western car in late 2015 and is led by a man known as Sidiki who claims to be protecting the Peul community -- the French term for the Fulani.

"It's Sidiki's forces who shot the people," a local resident told the Ndeke Luka radio station on Tuesday.

The violence occurred just days before a new round of peace talks which begin on Thursday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, involving a government delegation and the heads of CAR's main armed groups.