A human rights crisis is erupting

A human rights crisis is erupting in the Central African Republic:Please sign our urgent petition to stop the "ethnic cleansing"    Call on the African Union to provide peacekeeping forces with the resources and support needed to stop ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic        Jovachi Mongonou had both legs amputated after he was injured by a shell in an attack by Seleka forces© Amnesty International Central Africa researcher, Godfrey Byaruhanga     REPORT:  Ethnic cleansing and sectarian killings in the Central African Republic        WATCH VIDEO: Ethnic cleansing and sectarian killing in the Central African Republic   AMNESTY RESEARCH FROM THE FIELD You can see these horrors documented in our up-to-date reporting: latest country research field reports   video footage   SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA   Make a gift using our secure online form or call 1-800-AMNESTY (1-800-266-3789) Dear Tracy, Right now, militant groups are mass killing civilian men, women and children to “ethnically cleanse” the Central African Republic of its Muslim population.  << Please help Amnesty International's effort to save lives civilian lives now Amnesty International sent researchers to the country beginning in October, as the situation began to escalate. Our research has confirmed mass human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing. Peacekeepers are urgently needed to stop the unfolding horror in the Central African Republic as ethnic communities attack one another, with little regard for human life.  We need your help to alert the world now and protect civilians who have nowhere to turn. >> Please sign our online petition  >> Make a contribution to help protect civilian lives Your support will help us: distribute our research findings widely alert journalists to the urgency of the violations  meet with officials at the UN and the African Union to recommend actions needed to protect civilians continue to have a presence in the field to report on human rights violation mobilize human rights supporters around the world to add their voice You may know I was on a research mission last November to Chad, and saw first-hand the growing number of refugees fleeing the violence in neighbouring Central African Republic. Civilians and refugees in this part of the world so desperately need intervention from peacekeeping forces.  Just last week, our researchers arrived in Bouguere, a remote region in the Central African Republic to investigate a massacre that had taken place three weeks earlier. Nothing prepared our researcher Joanne Mariner for what she found. I'll let her share her story in her own words: The Muslim area of Bouguere was eerily empty. Most of the houses and businesses had been ransacked and some burned down. Those who had not been killed had fled. And then, we found her. Crouching in the corner of an abandoned house, a girl about 11 years old had survived it all. She had been there, alone, without food or water, for four days. She was terrified, could hardly speak and was so weak she could not even stand. She said her father was killed in the attack, and residents said her mother had been killed earlier assault. The girl was the only Muslim survivor and the Christian residents of the town begged us to take her. We took her to a place of safety. What happened in Bouguere was shocking, extremely disturbing, infuriating. International peacekeepers were nowhere to be seen, even though the area had already witnessed violent confrontations between anti-balaka militias and Seleka forces resulting in the massacre of civilians three weeks earlier. It was one of those places where something tragic was expected to happen but somehow, the international forces, sent to protect civilians were nowhere to be seen ... Read more Help Amnesty International strengthen the international call for peacekeepers with our ground research.  Our research is showing that massacres are a disturbing, common feature of the crisis in the Central African Republic. Day after day, men, women and children are being killed with guns and machetes, some left to rot in the streets. >> We need your help to end these horrors.  Please sign our petition now and consider making a financial contribution to help bring hope and human rights to the Central African Republic.  Thank you for your concern. Sincerely, Alex Neve Secretary General Amnesty International Canada P.S. Behind such terrible terms as "ethnic cleansing" are the very real, human stories of people who are suffering in this crisis: “The anti-balaka came in, took my son Abdel to the market and shot him dead. I saw a group of anti-balaka coming towards my home and I crouched against the wall to show them that was not a threat. One of them shot me three times, twice in the abdomen and once in my right arm, and left me for dead.” --Imam Mahajir, 76, who survived clashes between anti-balaka and armed Muslim civilians and remnants of Seleka forces in Bossemptele on 18 January.  “My father, Soba Tibati, could hardly walk and could not run away when the anti-balaka attacked our village. They decapitated him in front of my eyes as he sat on a straw mat under a tree outside our hut. Twelve other members of my family were also massacred in the same attack. The youngest was a baby girl who was just six months old.”  --Dairu Soba, survivor of an attack by anti-balaka fighters in Boyali on 8 January.  Please take action today or make a financial contribution to help Amnesty International continue to speak out in to protect civilian lives.