A group of anti-balaka militiamen pose for a photograph on the outskirts of Bangui. Reuters

AFP

A powerful vigilante leader in the Central African Republic, accused of masterminding a massacre of some 300 minority Muslims in December 2013, has been arrested, prosecutors said Sunday.
UN peacekeepers arrested Rodrigue Nagibona, alias General Andjilo, who had been on the run for several months, on Saturday in the northwest of the impoverished country and took him into custody, the prosecutors said.
A Cameroonian contingent of the UN force known by the acronym MINUSCA arrested Andjilo in the town of Bouca after a firefight with "his men", a judicial source said.
"General Andjilo is wanted for multiple alleged crimes including killings, rebellion, illegal possession of weapons of war, criminal association, rape and pillage," said Maurice Dibert-Dollet, Bangui's general prosecutor.
Violence between rival factions has plunged the deeply poor, landlocked country into an unprecedented political and security crisis.  
Mostly Muslim Seleka fighters backed by armed Muslim civilians have battled the anti-balaka, who emerged in mainly Christian communities to avenge attacks and atrocities, but are themselves accused of serious abuses.
Anti-balaka means "anti-machete" in the local Sango language and refers to the weapon of choice wielded by the Seleka -- but also taken up by the vigilantes.
A coalition of Seleka members mounted a coup in March 2013, installing the former French colony's first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia.
Djotodia was forced to step down in January 2014 under international pressure for failing to halt widespread atrocities against civilians by rogue rebels -- which led to the emergence of the "anti-balaka" vigilante forces.
Andjilo is also associated with an attack on a MINUSCA convoy in October 2014 that left one Pakistani soldier dead.
An anti-Balaka spokesman, Igor Lamaka, on Sunday lambasted the arrest of Andjilo, saying "We will not tolerate two-speed justice."
Lamaka said the movement had begun a reconciliation process, adding: "We denounce the disorder in which the international community wants to keep us in order to make chaos persist in this country."
Four other anti-balaka chiefs were arrested in September 2014 and charged with illegal arms possession. Their trial has been set for January 28 after one postponement.
In March 2014, another 11 anti-balaka leaders were detained but they managed to escape.