Bangui – An army commander in the Central African Republic has been charged with crimes against humanity by a tribunal investigating atrocities committed in the war-scarred country, the court said on Friday.
Commander Vianney Semndiro was also charged with torture, rape, sexual slavery and the “forced disappearance of persons” during the regime of former president Francois Bozize, the Special Criminal Court (CPS) said in a statement.
The alleged atrocities were committed at the Bossembele military camp north of the capital, Bangui, between 2009 and 2013.
Part of the secretive camp had been transformed into jails for “political” prisoners, according to international NGOs and journalists who visited the camp in 2013 after the fall of Bozize.
One of the poorest countries in the world, the former French colony was plunged into civil war in 2013 after Bozize was ousted by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels.
Christian and animist militia led by the ousted president have exacted reprisals and the United Nations has accused both sides of atrocities.
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The CPS is a hybrid court, composed of local and international magistrates, created in 2015 by the Central African Republic (CAR) under the aegis of the United Nations.
It has a mandate to investigate and judge war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the CAR since 2003.
The country of some five million people – which the UN says is the world’s second least developed – remains gripped by violence and human rights violations although the civil war has reduced in intensity since 2018.
Thousands have lost their lives in the conflict despite intervention by former colonial power France and the UN.
Both sides have been accused by the UN of war crimes and crimes against humanity, with some senior militia leaders being tried or prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The ICC trial of Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, an alleged Seleka commander, also accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, opened this week.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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