Crackdown on highway bandits
2005-07-13 14:57
Yaounde - Soldiers from the Central African Republic (CAR) and Cameroon killed 36 highway bandits and released 50 of their hostages on the border between the two countries, a Cameroon military source said.
"We succeeded in finding these criminals who organise their raids on the villages and we told the Cental African army who conducted this outstanding operation," said a Cameroonian army officer.
The Cameroonian army had discovered that the bandits were using the Central African village of Sagani as a base, he said.
The bandits are mostly made up of former rebel fighters who assisted in the coup which brought current President Francois Bozize to power in the CAR in March 2003.
They are particularly active in the almost lawless border regions with Cameroon to the west and Chad to the north, where they rob bus passengers and motorists while also abducting women and children from villages for ransoms.
The Central African government and United Nations agencies have estimated at some 6 000 the number of mutineers, militiamen and political mercenaries in the impoverished landlocked country, long prone to coups and instability.