CPC Rebels Ambush World Vision Team In Bocaranga, Central African Republic
Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) rebels in the Central African Republic are extending their attacks on non-state actors with a recent humanitarian team ambush.
The international non-governmental organisation, World Vision, has reported that a team of its personnel was ambushed Wednesday, April 7, in the periphery of Bocaranga by rebels of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC).
According to the organisation, some members of the team were held for several hours before being released.
Reliable humanitarian sources in Bocaranga told HumAngle that the team had left Paoua town some days earlier on a working mission in the district of Ouham-Pende of the Central African Republic.
“It was on their way back that all the entire team was kidnapped by the rebels on the periphery of Bocaranga, ten kilometres on the Letele highway,” the source revealed.
HumAngle was informed that the three members of the team were tortured by their abductors who stripped them of all their valuables including money, computers, mobile phones, among others.
“The team was finally freed in the evening but the driver had been so severely tortured that he could not drive well because of defective vision caused by the pepper the rebels had put in his eyes,” the source said.
As they lose ground daily, the CPC rebels are turning into armed bandits who block highways and extort money from voyagers.
“They are becoming the most dangerous enemies not only to the local populations but also to the activities of international humanitarian organizations and their personnel,” a political observer who opted for anonymity for fear of reprisals told HumAngle Thursday evening.
A World Vision official declined to comment on the incident when contacted.
The World Vision is a non-governmental Christian solidarity organisation founded on September 22, 1950, by Robert Pierce. It has offices in several countries with its headquarters in London.
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