Saturday, 8 February 2014

Soldier Stamps On Lifeless Body As Crowd Watched In Central African Republic.

Soldiers lynched an innocent bystander in the Central African Republic yesterday, beating the man to death before scores of witnesses only moments after the new president had voiced “pride” in their professionalism.The brazen murder, carried out with the utmost brutality, was another sign of the nightmarish disintegration of this remote country of 4.5 million people.

Hundreds of soldiers clad in red berets and new camouflage fatigues were on parade in the capital, Bangui, to greet the new interim president, Catherine Samba-Panza. She took office last month with the task of organising a general election.Ms Samba-Panza promised the soldiers that her government would pay their wages for the first time in five months. “I would like to renew my pride in those elements of FACA [Armed Forces of the Central African Republic] who are here and to ask them to support my actions wherever they are,” she said.  See more photos after the cut.


As soon as she left, soldiers gathered around a bystander and accused him of being from the Seleka rebel movement. What followed was witnessed by a journalists from news agencies including Associated Press and Reuters. “I will kill him with my own hands,” shouted one army recruit. The soldiers set upon the man with knives and bricks, kicking him to the ground, stripping him to his underwear and stabbing him over and over.

As he lay on the ground, bleeding profusely but still alive, peacekeeping soldiers from Burundi tried to protect him. They surrounded the man’s prostrate form, holding back the crowd of soldiers and bystanders.
But as the mob grew more furious, the Burundians abandoned the man to his fate, retreating without firing a shot. One gendarme in a blue uniform who also tried to intervene was threatened and accused of being a traitor. The mob seemed willing to kill him too, but other officers managed to take him to safety.

Then the victim was stabbed and beaten to death where he lay. Afterwards, the mob stabbed his body and dragged it through the streets before setting his corpse alight.

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