Samba-Panza declares war with Christian militias who are slaughtering Muslims
BBC | Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Central African Republic President Catherine Samba-Panza has said she will "go to war" with Christian militias who are slaughtering Muslims.
She said the militias, called anti-balaka, had "lost their sense of mission" and had become "the ones who kill, who pillage, who are violent".
The militias claim to be taking revenge for atrocities by Muslims last year.
Tens of thousands of Muslims have fled into Cameroon and Chad and many more are living in camps inside CAR.
Amnesty International has described the situation as "ethnic cleansing".
But Ms Samba-Panza rejected that label and characterised the violence as a "security problem".
"They think that because I'm a woman, I'm weak. But now the anti-balaka who want to kill will themselves be hunted," she said in a speech.
Many of the Muslims who have fled were traders or involved in the food business.
Their absence has sparked a collapse in food distribution and worsened a humanitarian crisis.
The UN's World Food Programme has started a massive month-long airlift of food into CAR from Cameroon, with the first flight arriving on Wednesday.
A total of 1,800 tonnes of cereal will be delivered in the coming weeks, but the WFP says almost 10 times that amount will be needed.
Some 7,000 troops - from France and African countries - have been mandated by the UN to help restore order.
But so far they have failed to stop the unrest, which has intensified since the Seleka leader stood down as president.