ICC Note: Twelve people are reported to have been killed in Bambari, Central African Republic (CAR), the first deaths since the February 14 runoff election, which saw Faustin Archange Touadera emerge victorious as the nation’s new president. The following Newsweek report links the murders to Fulani herder attacks, allegedly revenge killings for cattle theft. The same systematic murder happens in Nigeria towards agrarian Christian across the central “Middle-Belt” region. People nominally aligned with Christianity and Islam have been persecuting each other in the context of a brutal political struggle since 2011 in CAR.

By Conor Gaffey

3/8/16 Bambari, Central African Republic (Newsweek) – At least 12 people have been killed in villages in Central African Republic (CAR) in the first outbreak of violence since before the conflict-torn country elected a new president.

CAR held largely peaceful elections in December 2015 after several years of sectarian violence. Faustin Archange Touadera, a former maths professor and ex-prime minister, was elected in a run-off vote on February 14 and has pledged to restore peace and disarm militant groups in the landlocked country, the third-poorest in the world in terms of GDP per capita.

The attacks took place near the central town of Bambari, local officials told Reuters on Sunday. Six people were killed in three villages on Saturday, the officials said, in attacks that appeared to be linked to livestock rustling or an inter-ethnic dispute involving the Peul ethnic group, also known as the Fulani. Peuls, who are mostly Muslim, have reportedly been targeted by largely Christian militias known as the anti-balaka.

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