UPC Rebels Burning Properties, Assaulting Civilians In Bria, Central African Republic
Locals in Bria, Central African Republic said the rebels “have for several days now been burning motorcycles, holding up people and seizing their money, belongings, as well as confiscating vehicles belonging to humanitarian organisations”.
Combatants of the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic (UPC) rebel movement, which is a member of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), have been visiting mayhem in Bria, North-central area of the Central African Republic.
Locals said the rebels “have for several days now been burning motorcycles, holding up people and seizing their money, belongings as well as confiscating vehicles belonging to humanitarian organisations”.
“Ten motorcycles carrying goods were burnt down in one day by the same elements of the UPC/CPC in the locality of Bria,” a civil society source told HumAngle without revealing the humanitarian organisations whose vehicles were seized.
HumAngle learnt the mayhem started on Tuesday April 12, in Awalawa, 80 km from Bria on the Yalinga highway.
“The motorbike riders carrying goods were coming from Bria on their way to Yalinga when they met the heavily-armed assailants,” a local source revealed.
“After seizing everything from the motorbike men, the assailants went ahead to burn their bikes one after the other, including some of the goods they were carrying.”
Shortly after burning the goods and the motorbikes, the riders were set free but without the means to return to Bria while the rebels disappeared into the bushes, the source said.
On Saturday, April 3, 2022 at about 9 pm CAT, a truck carrying passengers from Bangui to Bria was the target of an armed gang identified as elements of the UPC who killed a police officer who was among the passengers in the vehicle.
Several of the passengers were also wounded and some of the goods the vehicle was carrying were carted away by the rebels.
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