Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-03-18

The world's largest bloc of Islamic countries has launched a special mission to probe facts in the war-torn Central African Republic.

Sheikh Tidiane Gadio, a former Senegalese foreign minister was named by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) last month to lead a high-level fact-finding mission to the Central African Republic

“The aim for us is to save this country,” Gadio, told Anadolu Agency.

Gadio said his mission would include a visit to Bangui, where he is expected to meet key local and regional parties to the conflict in the country.

The mission comes as the countrys Muslim population faces deadly and gruesome attacks from Christian militiamen and mobs.

Over the past weeks, anti-balaka Christian militias have raided Muslim homes killing children and women, looting and vandalizing properties.

Along with killing, kidnapping, torture and arbitrary arrest and detention, in the war-torn CAR, a UN investigation found evidences of sexual violence.

More than 1,000 people have been killed since sectarian fighting erupted in early December and nearly 1 million out of the country of 4.6 million people have fled their homes.

“It’s a very, very bleak situation. Yesterday we heard that in the capital Bangui there seems to be not more than a couple of hundred Muslims left in the capital,” Khadija Patel an Africa correspondent told Radio Islam.

“This from the capital city where Muslims were a vibrant part of the population, where Muslims formed a merchant class of the population, added Patel.

Patel said most Muslims had fled across the borders or have been killed while others are in hiding.

The local office of Doctors Without Borders MSF held an event on the Central African Republic, particularly focusing attention on the way forward for a country ravaged by genocide.

“And listening to a doctor who was in Bangui for quite some time narrating his experiences…and I think one thing that stood out for me yesterday was when he said,’ that even stray dogs in South Africa don’t live the way he seen people live in the Central African Republic’,” said Patel

CAR descended into anarchy in March of last year when Seleka rebels ousted François Bozize, a Christian, who had come to power in a 2003 coup.

Anti-Muslim violence has escalated since Catherine Samba-Panza, a Christian, was elected interim president in January.

She replaced Michel Djotodia, the country's first Muslim president since its independence from France in 1960, who stepped down earlier this year due to international and regional pressure.

Christians, who account for the majority of the country's population, accuse Muslims of supporting former seleka rebels blamed for attacking Christian homes, looting property and carrying out summary executions.

(Twitter: @Faizie143)