A/HRC/36/64 43. Most of the abuses were committed during clashes between groups or targeted attacks against civilians or in connection with movements by armed groups and were the work of the ex-Séléka coalition led by FPRC (including both ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka elements), as well as of UPC, the 3R group and anti-Balaka groups acting alone or on behalf of the armed coalition. There are reports that, in some cases, certain communities were targeted because of their perceived affiliation with an armed group. 44. On 12 October 2016, ex-Séléka fighters killed at least 37 civilians, injured 57 and forced thousands of people to flee when they razed the camp for internally displaced persons in Kaga Bandoro. The fighters destroyed 175 houses and 435 huts in the camp and surrounding areas, despite the presence of MINUSCA peacekeeping forces. 5 45. In the days that followed the fighting of November 2016 between FPRC and UPC in Bria, FPRC elements reportedly targeted the Fulani community for its supposed affiliation with UPC, carried out killings and abductions, and occupied hospitals, preventing injured Fulani from receiving treatment. Some of the dead were allegedly robbed and mutilated. For their part, UPC elements and armed Fulani reportedly attacked civilians on the roads outside Bria, executed and abducted men, and raped girls. They were reported to have specifically targeted Arab Muslims and Gula. 46. On 11 and 12 December 2016, UPC retook the town of Bakala, to the north of Bambari, which they had been driven out of by the armed coalition. UPC elements took revenge on the population for their previous defeat and reportedly killed at least 88 people in Bakala and at least 57 at neighbouring or nearby mining sites. It was reported that dozens of people, including children, were killed in the complex of the sub-prefectural school and close to the gendarmerie station, where UPC had invited them to attend a meeting. The bodies were allegedly dumped in the Ouaka River and in wells. UPC elements also reportedly killed many civilians during offensives in several villages in the prefectures of Ouaka and Basse-Kotto between February and May 2017.6 47. More than 400 people, including women and children, were reportedly killed in the prefectures of Haute-Kotto and Ouaka alone during the fighting and attacks by armed groups between November 2016 and February 2017. 48. Anti-Balaka fighters are accused of responsibility for a large number of killings of Fulani civilians, committed either alone or alongside the FPRC coalition. In mid-February 2017, anti-Balaka fighters reportedly killed at least 16 ethnic Fulani civilians near Ippy, Ouaka prefecture, during an ambush on a truck carrying people trying to reach safety in Bambari.7 49. Between 7 and 15 March, for example, attacks carried out by anti-Balaka elements on the village of Site Chinois, to the south of Bria, reportedly resulted in the deaths of around nine Fulani civilians and massive population displacement. 50. Armed groups have deliberately targeted the civilian population. Between 20 and 22 March 2017, the FPRC coalition and anti-Balaka fighters are alleged to have killed more than 23 civilians in Bakouma, Mbomou prefecture. On 11 May 2017, the local branch of the Red Cross in Alindao, Basse-Kotto, reported that 37 bodies had been recovered and 110 people injured in the locality following attacks carried out against the population between 8 and 10 May, allegedly by UPC militias. The local Red Cross documented 115 deaths following an attack on the town of Bangassou on 13 May 2017. 51. During clashes between anti-Balaka and ex-Séléka UPC in Alindao, Basse-Kotto, in mid-May, fighters set fire to more than 360 houses, according to the local Red Cross. 52. In the north-west of the country, following the theft of 600 cattle from an encampment of Fulani herders on 27 April 2017, allegedly by anti-Balaka elements, 3R fighters were reported to have attacked the town of Niem in Nana-Mambéré prefecture on 2 May 2017, causing population displacement and the deaths of 11 people. 5 6 7 8 Human Rights Watch, “Killing Without Consequence”, July 2017. Information received from the Human Rights Division of MINUSCA. Human Rights Watch, “Killing Without Consequence”, July 2017. GE.17-12914