Clergy attacked in Central African Republic

ISLAMIST rebels attacked the Sacred Heart Fathers’ mission station in Bouar in the north of the Central African Republic on September 27.
Sources in the country said Italian missionary Fr Beniamino Gusmeroli and locally born Deacon Martial Mengue were threatened by five armed men with Kalashnikovs, who tied up the clerics and gagged them with tape.
The armed men, who were believed to be Sudanese, ransacked the rooms of the mission station taking money, cameras, computers and other items.
The rebels took Deacon Mengue as a hostage, but released him hours later.
Sacred Heart Fathers mission procurator Fr Piero Trameri, noting the deterioration in the situation in the country, demanded the “speedy and determined intervention of the international community”.
Sources in the country said that mission stations and church-owned buildings were often targeted by the rebels.
Italian Carmelite priest, Fr Aurelio Gazzera, who works in Bozoum, said he  hoped the international community would react to the latest attack.
 “Central Africa is one of the subjects presently under discussion at the UN General Assembly,” he said
“We hope that it will bring concrete results, because the situation is continuing to deteriorate.
“As well as the fighting that took place in recent weeks in Bossangoa and drove 30,000 people to flight, last week the Seleka rebels killed two people and burned down 206 houses in the village of Herba, which lies 70 kilometres from the road to Bocaranga.”
Fr Gazzera, who has been working in the Central African Republic for 20 years, was beaten by members of Seleka on September 16, when visiting a rebel base to ask for the release of captives.
 “When I explained why I had come, the commander answered that they were soldiers and could do what they liked,” he said.
“At that moment, another of the leaders came into the room and screamed that he would kill me.
“I had no right to come and plead for the prisoners, he shouted. 
“He threatened me with a pistol and hit me in the face.”
Although the Seleka rebel alliance was officially disbanded on September 13 by President Djotodia, there are 25,000 Seleka rebels in the country.
“How long is this hell going to continue? No concrete steps are being taken that could lead to the rebels laying down their arms,” Fr Gazzera said.
In the past two weeks, clashes between Seleka and other armed groups in Ouham Pende Prefecture have seen more than 170,000 displaced people.
According to the United Nations 400,000 of the Central African Republic’s population of five million have fled their homes.