Senin, 17 Februari africatodayonline. On Sunday, African forces provided a military escort to hundreds of people on a slow convoy toward the Western border with Cameroon. Midway, in the town of Bouar, Amadou Gambo is parked outside the local mosque waiting for the troops to arrive so that he, too, could drive over the border to Cameroon.
He has packed a giant truck with 40 of his relatives and the remnants of his looted shop. It's a little more than miles to the border, and it's the first time he has ever left this town of Bouar, where he was born. On the side of the road, a small mob of Christians jeers, "Get out foreigners. He says that if not for the international troops, he'd kill Gambo and everybody else.
And he explains the reason why. Zuisse says he was a shopkeeper until last spring, when a coalition of rebels called the Seleka from the mostly-Muslim north along with mercenaries from Islamic countries Chad and Sudan, deposed the president and imposed a reign of terror against the people.
He says they killed his mother, grandmother, his sister and his youngest son. Zuisse's friend Alexandre, wearing an Eminem T-shirt, says he was shot in the thigh by the Seleka and pulls down his pants in the street to show his bullet wound.
Revenge And 'Magic' The men say they joined a gang called anti-balaka, meaning "anti-machete" in the local language. It's a Christian revenge militia, bent on driving out Muslims. Their campaign is also fueled by economic resentment of the Muslim minority that makes up most of the merchant class. The majority-Christian Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world.
