Bangui – Prosecutors are seeking life prison terms for three members of a powerful militia on trial for war crimes in the Central African Republic, according to documents seen by AFP.
Issa Sallet Adoum, Ousman Yaouba and Tahir Mahamat, members of the 3R militia should face life sentences for their crimes, confirmed by numerous witnesses, said the document.
The Special Criminal Court, a hybrid body of local and foreign magistrates set up in 2015 with UN backing, opened the trial of the three in April, its first since getting up and running.
The three defendants are accused of the massacre of 46 villagers in northwest CAR in May 2019.
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The 3R (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation) is one of the CAR’s most powerful armed groups, drawn mainly from the Fulani ethnic group, also called Peuls.
One of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world, the CAR plunged into civil war in 2013 largely along sectarian lines.
Violence fell back in intensity in 2018 but as recently as early 2021, two-thirds of the country lay in the hands of armed groups spawned in the conflict.
The mandate of the Special Criminal Court applies to war crimes and crimes against humanity dating back to 2003.
It struggled for years to get going in the face of logistical hurdles, lack of money and local hostility.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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