According to confirming sources, the victims, who could be more, were young traders who traveled by motorcycle to the Kouki market. The government immediately attributed responsibility for the tragedy to the CPC’s rebel coalition, in which the region is one of the strongholds, but many sources point instead to Russian intervention in the area.
Appointed head of government, the coalition of rebel groups CPC, which led the offensive against Bangui at the beginning of the year, quickly denied in a press release its responsibility in this attack. She is upset about being taken as a “scapegoat (…) without waiting for the results of the usual investigations”. The armed groups give a balance sheet of sixteen dead, murdered according to them by the “Russian instructors from the military company Wagner”.
Paramilitaries qualified as “mercenaries” by UN experts also named in charge of the tragedy of MKMKS by former Minister Jean-Serge Bokassa and the COD-2020 coalition bringing together the main figures in the political opposition. Opponents condemn “contemptuous killings” and demand an “independent commission of inquiry”.
More cautiously, seven deputies from Ouham prefecture said in an open letter “terrified” by the “murder of citizens and traders in the region” and called on the government to “highlight the incident”.
Finally, Minsuca, which has confirmed the discovery of at least thirteen bodies, announces that an investigation is underway and “requests government cooperation”.
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