By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic – Religious violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) could force its entire Muslim population to flee, a senior human rights worker has told BBC.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) emergency director Peter Bouckaert said this could affect the economy, as Muslims control the livestock market and other businesses.

HRW has called for a UN peacekeeping mission as Muslims are dying by the thousands and many are fleeing.

“We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings,” Bouckaert said, calling for a full-fledged UN peacekeeping mission. “Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone.”

The violence has reached an intolerable level. Many of the Muslim population have fled to Chad or Cameroon.

Muslims make up about 15% of CAR’s 4.6 million people. More than 800,000 people have fled their homes – about half of those from the capital, according to the UN.

“There are some who don’t want Muslims in this country,” Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on the local radio on Saturday. “But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss.”

Bouckaert has said that at least 10 people had died this past week in the capital.

He said he had personally witnessed a Muslim being hacked to death in Bangui, in retaliation for the reported killing of 6 people by Muslim fighters.

Thousands of Muslims left Bangui in a massive convoy on Friday that was jeered by crowds of Christians. One Muslim who fell off of a truck was quickly killed by the mob.

Muslim people who could not get on the trucks tried to hand their children to strangers aboard the vehicles.

Whole neighborhoods are abandoned and Muslims who cannot leave are hiding inside mosques that have not already been set ablaze or destroyed by angry crowds.

Entire Muslim communities also have left towns in the rural northwest, sometimes only to come under attack from Christian militiamen and die while trying to get out of the anarchic country.

No one knows the true death toll from the two months of the worst inter-communal violence in this country’s history. It is often too dangerous for crews to recover the corpses.

More than 1,000 people were killed during several days of fighting in early December, when a Christian militia attempted to overthrow the Muslim rebel government then in power.

For more information, please visit:
BBC News – Violence could force out CAR’s Muslim population – HRW – 9 February 2014
Mail & Guardian – CAR Muslims targets of mob violence – 9 February 2014
The Frontier Post – \”CAR\’s Muslim civilians\” \’at risk\’ – 9 February 2014
The Denver Post – Thousands of Muslims are fleeing Central African Republic amid mob violence – 9 February 2014