Refugees flee rage in the Central African Republic

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Jordy, 14, joined the rebels for survival and revenge. At least 6,000 children and probably many more are believed to have been recruited or abducted in the Central African Republic conflict. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A former child soldier takes part in a skit about his once-violent life during a visit with aid workers. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Former child soldiers listen during a meeting with UNICEF officials in the Central African Republic. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Children have been pawns in virtually every conflict in the Central African Republic, a country plagued for decades by coups, mutinies and rebellions. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A group of former child soldiers wait to learn about a United Nations-funded program to teach them new ways to make a living, such as farming, woodworking and masonry. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Charly, 16, says he regrets no longer being a child soldier in the Central African Republic. “With a gun,” he says, “you always have money.” (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Mireille was just 14 when she was abducted by a commander in the Seleka rebel coalition. He raped her for several months and then abandoned her. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Muslims fleeing the violence in the Central African Republic climb into trucks bound for neighboring Cameroon. A convoy originating in the capital, Bangui, took two days to complete the journey west, occasionally contending with threats from militia members targeting Muslims. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Muslims displaced by the violence in the Central African Republic ride in a truck destined for Cameroon. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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After riding for hours in a convoy bound for Cameroon, a passenger accepts a piece of fruit during a stop. Armed soldiers escorted the convoy to guard against militia attacks. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Yerima Houron hands 21-month-old Mariam to her mother, Aicha Oumar, as they wait for a truck convoy to depart for Cameroon. “I was born here, I grew up here,” Oumar said. “But because we are Muslim, they want us to go. They don’t want us anymore.” (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Muslim refugees crowd a truck headed for a camp in Cameroon. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A convoy carrying refugees heads toward Cameroon, which has taken in tens of thousands since the violence escalated in the Central African Republic. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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With the outside temperature nearing 90 degrees, refugees sit in the back of semi-trailer bound for Cameroon. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Troops from an African-led peacekeeping force known as the International Support Mission in the Central African Republic, or MISCA, escort a load of timber and other goods through the capital, Bangui. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Muslim refugees fill the back of a semi-trailer as they flee the violence in the Central African Republic. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A Burundian member of the MISCA peacekeeping force retrieves a rifle abandoned by “anti-balaka” militia members who had tried to slaughter a herd of cattle belonging to Muslims. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A mosque is among hundreds of buildings, belonging to both Christians and Muslims, that have been burned along the road from the capital, Bangui, to the Cameroon border. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The body of a Muslim man who was hacked to death by “anti-balaka” militia members is carried from a hospital morgue in the capital to be prepared for burial. The victim was among three people who had tried to flee Bangui by plane only to discover the flight was full. While returning home from the airport, they were attacked and killed. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The body of a Muslim man hacked to death by “anti-balaka” militia members lies in a hospital morgue. He was among three Muslims killed while returning from the airport, where they had tried unsuccessfully to join a flight out of the capital. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Alima Ambayakwe, a Muslim woman, brushes off an overture from Maurice Konomo, a self-styled general for the “anti-balaka” militia forces. Konomo said he found Ambayakwe, 20, under a tree beside a road and promised to hand her over to peacekeepers. Women have been taken hostage and held as sex slaves by both sides in the conflict. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The destroyed homes of Muslim families stand along the road between Bangui and the Cameroon border. The ruins of Christian and Muslim homes alike can be seen along the entire stretch of roadway. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A Burundian member of the MISCA peacekeeping force watches over a herd of cattle that “anti-balaka” militia members had tried to steal. “It’s because of this that we have all these problems,” yelled a driver name Yaya Hayatou, who is Muslim. “They kill people just to take their cattle.” (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A boy pushes his bicycle carrying part of a cow carcass along the road between Bouar and Bossemptele, where “anti-balaka” militia members were seen hunting down cattle herds owned by Muslim nomads. Some of the cattle were slaughtered on the spot and the parts divided up. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A Muslim girl carries water into a hangar at Bangui M’Poko International Airport in the Central African Republic capital. Christians and Muslims fleeing the violence were living at separate camps at the airport. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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A woman and children are shown in the Central Mosque in Bangui, where displaced Muslim residents have taken shelter. The number sheltering there has dwindled as Muslims have fled the violence in the region. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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The Central Mosque in Bangui once housed 2,000 displaced Muslims, but many have fled the Central African Republic amid violence and persecution by “anti-balaka” militia fighters. The largely Christian militia is responding to abuses by Muslim-led Seleka rebels who seized power last March. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Displaced Muslims live temporarily on the grounds of the Central Mosque in Bangui. Many lack the money to seek refuge abroad. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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Zahra Ali, 70, whose son was killed in the violence, sits in the courtyard of the Central Mosque in Bangui, where many Muslims in the Central African Republic have taken refuge. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

By Alexandra Zaviswriter

March 29, 2014 11:08 PM PT

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World & Nation

Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

Refugees flee rage in the Central African Republic

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