SUMMARY

The Government of Central African Republic (CAR) has conducted numerous attacks on civilians, mostly as a response to armed rebellion. Targeted in these attacks have been people suspected of being affiliated with, or sympathisers to, different rebel groups. These suspicions have oftentimes been based simply in people being of a certain ethnic group or living in a particular area. Civilians that have not been able to point out where rebels were located or hid their weapons have been killed indiscriminately by the government army, predominantly the presidential guard. Some people have been beaten to death while others have been shot. The victims of these types of attacks have included students, traders, and peasants but occasionally also children. In addition to this the army has also burnt down several villages. The majority, but not all, of the one-sided killings attributed to the Government of CAR has connections to armed rebellion against the regime in Bangui. Hence, the level of deliberate attacks against civilians most often follow the level of armed rebellion against the government. Within the Government of CAR it is mostly the army and especially the presidential guard that has carried out one-sided violence.

The Government of Central African Republic first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2001, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 31 December 2001 when the CAR army killed four civilians in southern Chad.