Fourteen Killed at Religious Site in Central Africa

By Staff, Agencies

Fourteen people, including at least two civilians, were killed inside a "religious site" as government and rebel forces fought for control of a Central African Republic [CAR] town, rights group Amnesty International said Thursday.

The organization said the incident took place in central Bambari town on February 16, the day before government troops recaptured it from rebels.

In mid-December, just over a week before presidential and legislative elections, six rebel groups united to launch an offensive against CAR President Faustin Archange Touadera with the government and its allies on the counter-offensive since January.

"Testimonies, satellite imagery and photographic analysis" confirmed the killings, Amnesty International said in a statement, adding that the evidence could be "geolocated to a religious site in the east of Bambari."

Video evidence showed as many as 14 bodies, some not wearing military clothes, and including a woman and a child, the group said.