Security forces execute six alleged bandits

Six suspected bandits were summarily executed by security forces in Bangui between Friday and Monday under a "deplorable" crime fighting measure, human rights sources told IRIN on Tuesday.

Under the practice, officials from Bangui's Office centrafricain de repression du banditisme (OCRB) track down suspected bandits on their third suspected offence and kill them extrajudicially, "sometimes right in front of their parents", one source said. The OCRB reportedly killed four people on Friday, one on Sunday and another on Monday.

A recent rise in the number of OCRB executions was at least partly due to the increased availability of weapons resulting from the influx of Congolese government soldiers into the city last month, sources said.

Local human rights activists say their attempts to speak out against the summary executions have often been met with hostility on the part of residents, who view the OCRB practice as a means of reducing the level of insecurity in their neighbourhoods.

Repatriation of Congolese soldiers continues

Meanwhile, CAR authorities have started to transport Congolese government soldiers from Mobaye to Bangui by road so that they can be airlifted to Kinshasa, sources told IRIN on Tuesday. Some 200 soldiers were flown to Kinshasa on Tuesday, reportedly aboard an Antonov aircraft provided by Libya and more were expected to leave on Wednesday, sources said. Some 5,600 DRC soldiers fled last month to Mobaye, where they have reportedly been terrorising local residents.