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Eight civilians were brutally killed in the North-West of the Central African Republic on July 21, 2020 in the commune located 12 km from the city of Bossangoa on the road in the direction of Nana Bokassa.  The national gendarmerie sent an investigation team to Kouki (a commune 80 km from Bossangoa) to pursue the perpetrators and to investigate the murders in detail.

The early version of the tragedy implies the CPC terrorists to be the perpetrator, as since the successful liberation of the major cities and transport routs by the Central African national defense forces supported by their Russian instructors, the CPC terrorists have changed their strategy and dispersed around the country’s forest, making recurrent raids on the distant communes and villages to loot and rob the locals.

However, a more thorough investigation unraveled a different angle of this tragedy.

Even though the national defense forces (FACA) perform constant clearing operations all-round the country in order to eradicate armed groups that cause distress to the civilian population, they cannot be everywhere at once. The population of the North-West of the CAR was pleading the government to deploy more national troops to area and even build FACA bases in the localities to protect them from extractions and threats.

In the wake of these demands from the population the FACA together with their Russian instructors headed to the Bossangoa-Nana Bokassa area to perform an inspection of the security situation there. But according to the local witnesses both the FACA and the Russian have left the commune by the time the tragedy occurred.

Nevertheless, there were other non-locals spotted in the commune on 21 July. Martin Gbade, who works in the field near the commune, says “I was working in the field when I saw MINUSCA car moving towards our home. I did not pay much attention to it, but then we heard shots in the distance and we were scared, we didn’t know what happened in our village!”

Emilie Wagomba who lives in the attacked commune fled when she heard the shots: “I was cooking a meal, when they started shooting. I thought at once that it was the CPC, they came to steal from us. I ran out and wanted to hid, but I noticed a MINUSCA car and no sight of the CPC rebels! I noticed 4 or 5 white people; I remember one of them with red hair. I didn’t look long at them, I ran to the forest anyway, these MINUSCA soldiers are no better than CPC!”