BANGUI (Reuters) - An armed militia killed 34 civilians in an attack on Tuesday in Central African Republic, a government spokesman said, issuing a deadline for the group’s leader to give up the perpetrators to the authorities.

The attack was the most deadly since 14 armed groups agreed a peace deal in February that was meant to bring stability to a country rocked by violence since 2013, when mainly Muslim Selaka rebels ousted the then president, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militia.

The group ‘Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation,’ or 3R, attacked a number of villages in the northwest region Pahoua, seeking revenge for the killing of an ethnic Peul, government spokesman Ange Kazagui said at a joint briefing on Wednesday with the United Nation’s MINUSCA peacekeeping mission.

The government calls on 3R leader Sidiki Abass to “arrest and hand over those responsible for this massacre to the authorities in the next 72 hours or risk being held personally responsible”, Kazagui said.

The bloodshed will further test the peace agreement, which has already come under strain due to disagreements over representation in the cabinet.

“MINUSCA asks 3R in particular and all the armed groups in general to show strict respect for international human rights and the reconciliation and peace agreement,” MINUSCA spokeswoman Uwolowulakana Ikavi-Gbetanou said at the briefing.

The government and rebels expressed optimism when the accord was signed on Feb. 5. But lasting peace is not guaranteed: similar agreements in 2014, 2015 and 2017 all broke down.

The 3R group emerged in late 2015 to protect the minority Peul population, who are mostly Muslim cattle herders, from attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias.

Thousands of people have died because of the unrest in the diamond and gold-producing country, and a fifth of the 4.5 million population have fled their homes. </s> YANGON (Reuters) - Some 30 people died in clashes between ethnic rebels and Myanmar security forces in a restive area along the border with China on Monday, the government said, dealing a blow to leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s goal of reaching peace with minorities.

Suu Kyi’s nearly one-year-old government is increasingly besieged by ethnic rebels, grappling with an alliance of militias in the north and a new Rohingya insurgency rebelling against decades of persecution in the northwest of the country.

The attack came after the Nobel Peace Prize winner met a delegation of ethnic armed groups last week to convince them to take part in a major peace conference. Suu Kyi swept to power in 2015 on promises of national reconciliation and the meeting was aimed at giving fresh impetus to the stuttering peace process.

“I strongly urge all sides to come to the peace negotiating table by abandoning the armed attacks, which have caused many deaths and problems for the citizens, who are not guilty, and the residents of the area,” Suu Kyi said in a statement reacting to the assault released late on Monday.

Fighters from the predominantly ethnic Chinese Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a pre-dawn attack on police posts, military installations and government administrators in the capital of the northeastern Kokang region, Laukkai.

As a result, some 30 people died, including civilians and police officers. Hotels and cars were destroyed and four policemen have been taken hostage, the government said.

MNDAA is a part of the Northern Alliance - a coalition of rebel groups comprising one of Myanmar’s most powerful militias, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and two smaller groups that have been in a stand-off with the Myanmar military since clashes in the Kokang area in 2015.

Many died and tens of thousands fled the region during that fighting, which also spilled over into Chinese territory and resulted in the death of five Chinese people, angering Beijing.

Myanmar state television, MRTV, said the fighting with MNDAA was continuing at the time of Suu Kyi’s statement. </s> At least 26 people have been killed, and many more wounded, in a massacre representing one of the biggest single losses of life in the Central African Republic (CAR) since a February peace deal.

The UN’s peacekeeping mission in CAR (Minusca) reported on Wednesday that Tuesday’s slaughter took place after an armed group called 3R attacked two villages Koundjili and Djoumjoum, in the north-west of the country.

The slaughter was the biggest single loss of life since the government and 14 militias signed a deal in February aimed at restoring peace to one of Africa’s most troubled countries, the East African reported.

There are now unconfirmed reports from the area that anti-balaka militias are mobilising to protect Christians and animists from attacks by Muslim groups.

In another incident, the Vatican reported simultaneously that a French-Spanish nun had been decapitated in a village in south-western CAR where she taught sewing to young girls.

The 3R group takes its initials from three words in French meaning “Return, Reclamation and Reconciliation”. It claims to represent the Fulani, one of the CAR’s many ethnic groups.

In February the militia was one of the 14 groups that signed the February 6 peace accord – the eighth attempt to end violence in CAR – in which the government gave key positions to warlords and agreed to set up mixed units of regular troops and militiamen.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android. </s> JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A peace deal has been reached between the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups after their first-ever direct dialogue aimed at ending years of conflict, the United Nations and African…

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A peace deal has been reached between the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups after their first-ever direct dialogue aimed at ending years of conflict, the United Nations and African Union announced on Saturday.

The peace deal represents rare hope for the impoverished, landlocked nation where interreligious and intercommunal fighting has continued since 2013. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a conflict that has sent two people to the International Criminal Court.

“I am determined to work with the president and his government to address the concerns of our brothers who took up arms,” said Central African Republic’s Cabinet director Firmin Ngrebada, according to the U.N.

The parties on Sunday will sign a draft of the agreement, which focuses on power-sharing and transitional justice, Sudan’s state media reported, citing Sudan’s chief negotiator Atta al-Manan. The final deal is expected to be signed on Wednesday. Talks began Jan. 24 in Khartoum.

“This is a great day for Central African Republic and all its people,” said the AU commissioner for peace and security, Smail Chergui.

The fighting has carried the high risk of genocide, the U.N. has warned. The conflict began in 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Largely Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back. Scores of mosques were burned. Priests and other religious leaders were killed. Many Muslims fled the country after mobs decapitated and dismembered some in the streets.

The vicious fighting in a country known more for coups than interreligious violence was so alarming that Pope Francis made a bold visit in 2015, removing his shoes and bowing his head at the Central Mosque in the last remaining Muslim neighborhood of the capital, Bangui.

“Together we say ‘no’ to hatred,” the pope said.

The violence has never disappeared, intensifying and spreading last year after a period of relative peace as armed groups battled over lands rich in gold, diamonds and uranium.

After more than 40 people were killed in a rebel attack on a displaced persons camp in November, both the leader of the 13,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission and the country’s prime minister both acknowledged shortcomings in the response. “I knew that we did not have all the necessary means to protect our people,” the prime minister said.

In a grim report last year marking five years of the conflict, the U.N. children’s agency said fighters often target civilians rather than each other, attacking health facilities and schools, mosques and churches and camps for displaced people. At least half of the more than 640,000 people displaced are children, it said, and thousands are thought to have joined the armed groups, often under pressure.

Last month the chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation appeared at the International Criminal Court for the first time since he was arrested last year in France on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona is accused of leading the anti-Balaka for at least a year early in the fighting.

In November a Central African Republic militia leader and lawmaker, Alfred Yekatom, made his first ICC appearance, accused of crimes including murder, torture and using child soldiers. He allegedly commanded some 3,000 fighters in a predominantly Christian militia in and around the capital early in the fighting. He was arrested last year after firing gunshots in parliament.

So far no Seleka fighters have been publicly targeted by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

As the peace talks began last month, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned of “catastrophe” if no agreement was reached, saying repeated cycles of violence in one of the world’s poorest nations had “pushed people(asterisk)s resistance to breaking point.”

A majority of Central African Republic’s 2.9 million people urgently need humanitarian support, the group said.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo on Central African Republic for a year but raised the possibility that it could be lifted earlier as the government has long urged.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> The death toll from fighting between rival armed groups in Libya's capital has climbed to at least 50 people including civilians, authorities said Tuesday, as the UN mission stepped up efforts to a cease-fire.

Fighting erupted last week when the Seventh Brigade, militias which hail from Tarhouna, a town about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Tripoli, attacked southern neighbourhoods of the capital.

The Revolutionaries' Brigades and the militias which support the Tripoli-based UN-backed government have come to the city's defence.

At least 138 people, including civilians, have since been wounded, the said in a statement.

slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that overthrew ruler and led to his death. The country is currently governed by rival authorities in and the country's east, each of which are backed by an array of militias.

Other armed groups have carved out fiefdoms across the country, with many profiting from smuggling and extortion.

The in has voiced concern about the impact of the fighting on migrants and internally displaced people.

said Tuesday that some of the nearly 8,000 arbitrarily detained migrants are trapped in detention centres in areas where fighting has taken place, without access to or medical treatment.

She said at least 21 civilians have been killed, including two women and two children since August 26.

Also on Tuesday, the called on parties to the fighting to "spare civilians and and allow safe passage for those seeking refuge in safer areas".

The clashes have forced the UN-backed government to declare a state of emergency in and around Tripoli, saying the fighting is "an attempt to derail peaceful political transition" in the country.

The government said it "could not remain silent over the attacks on Tripoli and its suburbs, which is a violation of security in the capital and of citizens' safety".

Mohamed Buisier, a political analyst, said the fighting was expected as the armed groups protecting the government in Tripoli were getting "larger portions of financial incentives." 



"This is a normal thing after years of failure...We are in a new phase where nobody can strip the militias from their arms. needs an international peace-keeping force," he said.

The UN mission in has been preparing for a meeting between the warring parties in an effort to put an end to the fighting.

It called on "the various concerned parties" to meet on Tuesday for an "urgent dialogue on the security situation" in Tripoli. </s> KINSHASA (Reuters) - An ethnic Nande militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed about 30 civilians, mostly Hutus, on Sunday morning, local sources said, in an apparent escalation of deadly violence between the two groups that has flared repeatedly this year.

Joy Bokele, territorial administrator in North Kivu province’s Lubero territory, told Reuters that fighters from the Mai Mai Mazembe militia attacked the village of Luhanga at about 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) with guns and machetes.

Ethnic rivalries, incursions and competition for mineral-rich land have stoked conflict for two decades among eastern Congo’s dozens of armed groups, including many “Mai Mai” - self-defense militias originally created to resist Rwandan invasions.

The Mai Mai groups take their name from the word for “water” in a local Swahili dialect, because some of their fighters believe magic can turn flying bullets into water.

“For the time being, we have a provisional toll of about 30 deaths and about 20 wounded,” Bokele said.

Militias claiming to represent the two ethnic groups have engaged in tit-for-tat violence throughout the year that has killed dozens of civilians.

International powers fear tensions over President Joseph Kabila’s plan to stay in power beyond the end of his mandate next month could spark large-scale conflict that would feed into such local disputes. A 1998-2003 war in eastern Congo killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease.

Bokele said there was no known motive behind the attack but the Centre of Study for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights, a local activist group, said the killings followed a week of threats by the militiamen against local Hutus.

Tensions between the Hutu and neighboring communities have spiked since Congo’s army launched a military offensive last year against the main Hutu militia in the region, displacing large numbers of fighters and civilians. </s> KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Central African Republic signed a peace deal with 14 armed groups on Tuesday following two weeks of talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The peace deal was announced on Saturday by the African Union but the terms were not immediately released.

Central African Republic has been rocked by violence since 2013 when mainly Muslim Selaka rebels ousted then-president Francois Bozize, prompting reprisals from mostly Christian militia.

Thousands of people have died because of the unrest in the diamond and gold-producing country, and a fifth of the 4.5 million population have fled their homes.

A 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, deployed since 2014, has struggled to restore order to the countryside where the government has little or no control and attacks on civilians are frequent. Over a dozen peacekeepers were killed by rebels in 2017 alone.

The government and rebels expressed optimism over the deal on Saturday. Lasting peace is not guaranteed, however, because similar agreements in 2014, 2015 and 2017 all broke down. </s> (Geneva) – Unaccountable and violent armed groups maintain a stranglehold on Libya, while civilians pay the price in the divided country, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2019. Libyan authorities should prioritize justice sector reform and establishing accountability, particularly for members of armed groups.

Seven years after the end of the 2011 revolution in Libya that ended the rule of the strongman Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has two competing governments that have been unable to reconcile. They contest control over territory, institutions and resources, while armed groups linked with them unlawfully kill, forcibly disappear, torture, and arbitrarily detain people and have . Government-aligned forces and militias have kept thousands of in detention centers where conditions are inhumane and physical abuse is routine.

“Militias have been terrorizing both Libyans and migrants while no authority dares stand up to them and hold them to account,” said , senior Libya researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Until this changes, prospects remain dim for holding free and fair elections.”

In the 674-page World Report 2019, its 29th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that the populists spreading hatred and intolerance in many countries are spawning a resistance. New alliances of rights-respecting governments, often prompted and joined by civic groups and the public, are raising the cost of autocratic excess. Their successes illustrate the possibility of defending human rights – indeed, the responsibility to do so – even in darker times.

Protracted armed conflicts have hobbled key institutions in Libya, such as the judiciary, which functions only partially due to threats, harassment and attacks against judges, lawyers and prosecutors by militias. Where courts function, there are serious due process violations. In August, in one example, a Tripoli court sentenced in one mass trial to death and 54 others to five years in prison for the killing of protesters in 2011 despite allegations of serious due process violations.

Despite a mandate to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Libya since 2011, the International Criminal Court has only issued one arrest warrant since 2011, against a affiliated with the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces, allied with one of the competing governments, who remains at large.

As a result of the conflicts, 200,000 people remain internally displaced. Thousands of families who since 2014, and since May 2018 are unable to return to their homes or to reclaim their properties and livelihoods for fear of reprisals by LNA-linked groups who accuse them of supporting terrorism. Representatives from the cities of Misrata and Tawergha signed a peace accord in June that should have paved the way for the return of 48,000 people . But, only a few hundred have returned, due to the massive destruction and looting and ongoing security concerns and fear of reprisals.

Clashes between Tebu and Arab local militias in the south between February and June killed scores of civilians. In September, between rival militias in Tripoli left more than 100 people dead, including many civilians, according to the United Nations.

Although the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) has controlled no territory in Libya since its ouster from Sirte in December 2016, it staged several deadly attacks that targeted civilians. In May, ISIS claimed an attack in Tripoli on the High National Elections Commission that resulted in the deaths of 12 people, some of them civilians.

Militias and government aligned armed groups . Journalists reported that the Government of National Accord, the internationally recognized government, imposed restrictive measures against international journalists and TV networks, including by imposing government minders during visits to Libya and limiting access to officials and institutions, as well as migrant detention centers. </s> RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said one of its helicopters crashed in eastern Yemen on Tuesday, killing 12 Saudi officers in one of the deadliest incidents for the kingdom's troops since the war began more than two years ago.

The Black Hawk helicopter crashed in the eastern province of Marib, the coalition said, adding that it is investigating the circumstances. The incident happened as U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to discuss the Yemen war with Saudi leaders.

The coalition of mostly Arab Sunni countries has waged a campaign to dislodge Yemeni Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital and some other areas in 2014 and forced the internationally-recognized government to flee the country.

The U war has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 civilians and led to the displacement of some 3 million Yemenis. Dozens of Saudi soldiers have been killed in cross-border attacks from Yemen.

The single deadliest incident for coalition forces killed 45 troops from the United Arab Emirates in September 2015, when a rebel missile hit a weapons depot - also in Marib. It was the deadliest day for its military in the UAE's 44-year history. Ten Saudis were killed in the blast too. Bahrain also lost five soldiers, though it was not clear if they were killed in the same incident.

Mattis told reporters while heading to the kingdom that he will push for a political resolution to end the conflict. He said the Trump administration's goal is for the crisis "to be put in front of a U.N.-brokered negotiating team and try to resolve this politically as soon as possible."

He also echoed past Saudi accusations that Houthis have been receiving arms from Iran, saying that the Iranians have supplied Houthis with missiles they use to fire on Saudi Arabia.

Mattis is the highest-level Trump administration official to visit the kingdom. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister, met Trump at the White House last month.

Multiple rounds of U.N-brokered peace talks have failed to bridge the gap between the warring parties in Yemen. President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi insists on the implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions which stipulate that the Houthis pull their militias from the cities and hand over heavy weapons, while the Shiite rebels demand on a power-sharing deal before taking any security-related steps.

Hadi's government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, has regained control over southern Yemen, but has however failed to restore law and order in that part of the country as the extremist Islamic State group and al-Qaida militants have grown in numbers and expanded their footprints.

Over the past weeks, fighting has been intensified in the western coastline regions. Coalition officials say they are preparing for an all-out assault to take control over the vital Red Sea port city of Hoedida, considered the lifeline for Houthis and their landlocked base in northern Yemen.

Associated Press Writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Armed militias kill over 30 civilians in one of the deadliest attacks since a peace deal was reached back in February of this year.