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This is the first testimony heard in the open trial in mid-February against Patrice Edouard Ngaïssona and Alfred Yekatom of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The two Central Africans are being prosecuted for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 2013 and 2014. Prosecutors have called for a victim of the December 5, 2013 attack in Bangui.
With our special correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas
Protected witness, the young woman filed under a pseudonym, face hidden from the public. At the booth, she told of anti-balaka crimes against Boeing, west of Bangui, on December 5, 2013. Concerned about rumors of an attack by the militia in which the two accused were involved, she sought refuge at PK5 while her husband was still leading the family store. Until the sad day …
At the bar, she speaks Sango, but her story is interpreted before the judges.
“We started hearing gunshots. I got up quickly and shook. I opened the gate, I came out. I saw the wounded people who had broken arms, the parents screaming, my heart beating. Someone asked me the question: “but where are you going?”. I said to him: “but I will look for my husband”. “He said to me, ‘But anti-balakas came out everywhere, you can not go there. “” It was only a few days later that she was told that the dead bodies had been transported to the mosque.
“There is a vehicle transporting the bodies to the mosque. My husband was in it. I went to see the body. His neck was broken. I fell into tears. ”
With this testimony, there was no question of the two accused. Above all, the prosecutor drew a first picture of their militia crimes.
Read also: Central African Republic: at the ICC, the two portraits of Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona
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