The Central African Republic's top Catholic and Muslim leaders said Friday that militiamen from both sides using churches and mosques as shelters should disarm or be disarmed.
The fresh cross-faith appeal to stop the looting and sectarian violence that has displaced close to a quarter of the total population in a year came after the U.N. called for more contributions to an overstretched peacekeeping force.
Dieudonne Nzapalainga and Oumar Kobine Layama, respectively the archbishop and imam of Bangui, held a joint press conference urging rival groups to lay down their arms.
"Let all our brothers who are carrying weapons hand them over. The soldiers should disarm everyone, in churches and in mosques," Nzapalainga said.
"Armed people have been infiltrating places of worship, including mosques," Layama said, urging the population to support international disarmament efforts.
They supported U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's call on Thursday for 3,000 extra troops to be dispatched to the country.
The clerics said reinforcements were needed to assist vulnerable civilians in parts of the vast country where the weak interim government has no clout and foreign troops have not yet ventured.
The pair of religious leaders has relentlessly criss-crossed the Central African Republic to preach restraint since the aftermath of a March 2013 coup spiraled into Christian-Muslim clashes.
The fresh cross-faith appeal to stop the looting and sectarian violence that has displaced close to a quarter of the total population in a year came after the U.N. called for more contributions to an overstretched peacekeeping force.
Dieudonne Nzapalainga and Oumar Kobine Layama, respectively the archbishop and imam of Bangui, held a joint press conference urging rival groups to lay down their arms.
"Let all our brothers who are carrying weapons hand them over. The soldiers should disarm everyone, in churches and in mosques," Nzapalainga said.
"Armed people have been infiltrating places of worship, including mosques," Layama said, urging the population to support international disarmament efforts.
They supported U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's call on Thursday for 3,000 extra troops to be dispatched to the country.
The clerics said reinforcements were needed to assist vulnerable civilians in parts of the vast country where the weak interim government has no clout and foreign troops have not yet ventured.
The pair of religious leaders has relentlessly criss-crossed the Central African Republic to preach restraint since the aftermath of a March 2013 coup spiraled into Christian-Muslim clashes.
