Four lynched in Central African Republic’s capital
Four people were killed by mobs in Central African Republic's capital Bangui last Thursday, witnesses said, in an escalating religious violence that could threaten a December election.
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That brings this week's death toll to 11, including three senior negotiators for the Muslim Seleka alliance visiting the capital for peace talks aimed at resolving a two-year conflict.
The spike in violence might wreck plans to hold long-delayed elections this year, as former colonial power France and other Western countries push for an end to a transition period, reports Reuters News Agency.
The Electoral Commission has set December 13 as the date for both presidential and parliamentary elections.
Witnesses say three Muslims were attacked early last Thursday as they left the city's only Muslim enclave, PK5, to enter the Christian sixth district.
Two of them were killed immediately and their bodies chopped into small pieces, witnesses said. A third man escaped but was then stoned to death by a crowd and his body left by a church, the witnesses said.
"I am shocked by what I saw," said a woman from the sixth district, who asked to remain anonymous. "Even children were stoning the man who moaned and begged for mercy before dying."
In an apparent act of retaliation, a Christian was killed later in the morning as he entered PK5, according to residents and family members visiting the morgue.
