« We could not watch this gruesome show without reacting,” said the 23-year-old motorcycle taxi driver. “We also grabbed knives to fight. One of them wanted to stab me in the belly. I dodged, but the knife went into my left thigh.”

The perpetrators fled but not before they wounded some onlookers and stole items from nearby stalls. When police arrived on the scene, they stopped a furious mob from lynching a man who didn’t escape and was accused of bringing the gang to the neighborhood.

« While the police were escorting the man to their vehicle, someone in the crowd threw a large stone and he fell to the ground,” said Hélène Delli, a 38-year-old local resident. “He was bleeding and was taken to a hospital.”

In Douala, the economic capital of this central African country, this scene is becoming increasingly common as young men armed with knives, machetes and sticks roam the streets, often murdering, looting and raping in conflicts with other gangs.

In this case, the attacker was a child who was probably younger than 15, and a refugee, say authorities — Cameroon hosts almost 350,000 refugees from the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Chad and Mali.

After a coalition of Muslim rebels called the Seleka overthrew Central African Republic President François Bozizé in 2013, for example, around 230,000 Central African refugees fled to Cameroon, according to the UN.

Also, tens of thousands of Nigerians fled the ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram militants who have been running rampant in their country. Cameroon returned 100,000 of them back home in recent years, garnering criticism from human rights groups.

They and other refugees came to the once-tranquil streets of Douala in hopes of finding jobs and other opportunities. But the breakdown of security in their sprawling communities has led to gangs perpetually fighting in tit-for-tat conflicts.

“There are some who avenge one of their own who has been attacked,” Beti Minyono Dominique, commander in chief of the Douala security forces in Cité Cicam, a district where the gangs are concentrated. “Then there are those who are paid by people who want to settle accounts with their enemies or opponents. The majority of these aggressors are foreigners.”

It’s become a major issue in the city, say locals.

« The phenomenon of gangs is a gangrene that is flourishing, » said Henriette Ekwe, a political analyst, newspaper publisher and founder of Cameroon’s chapter of Transparency International, a corruption and governance watchdog group. « A gendarmerie officer recently confided to me that without knowing the layout of certain neighborhoods, law enforcement officials become easy prey to bandits.”

There are no official figures on gangs. Security forces have arrested hundreds in street fights that led to several murders and hundreds of injuries in Douala this year, said local officials. But law enforcement rarely produces results. Police recently rounded up dozens of young suspected gang members but later released them for lack of evidence.

Neighborhood gang leaders who did not want to be quoted said hundreds of men were in street gangs in each neighborhood of the city of 3 million. They said they could easily bribe their way out of jail.

Benoit Yapelendji is a refugee from the Central African Republic. A former member of the anti-Balaka, a Christian militia in the Central African Republic that opposes the Seleka, he joined a gang of around 10 fellow refugees in Cité-Cicam.

« We do not attack people, » said the 17-year-old horse-taxi driver, caressing his dreadlocks. « We live here as a family with the brothers of West Africa, too — even the police are in the family. Someone can come and ask us to help solve a problem. Everyone comes out with his equipment. Me, I take my machete to do the work.”

In the Central African Republic, Yapelendji was working in a vehicle repair shop in Bangui when civil war erupted at home. The eldest of four children, two of whom were killed by Muslim militiamen, he takes drugs before street fighting.

« It’s cocaine that gives us the strength and courage to fight, » he said.

Meanwhile, police are now concerned over vigilantes getting together and lynching gang members — a whole new escalation.

“To respect human rights, law enforcement forces refuse to brutalize suspects,” said Dominique. “But some people take this attitude as a sign of weakness.”

Most residents, meanwhile, say they have experienced gang violence and just want it to stop.

« Two boys came into the hair salon and asked for our mobile phones,” said Martine Essombe, who said she handed over her phone immediately. “Outside, other young people were taking old people out of their homes to beat them up, saying they were avenging their friend. Frankly, we’re not safe anymore. »

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“We cannot say we live. We survive,” the 55-year-old Ms. Florence said. “We pray to God that the war ceases and we return home.”

Almost five years ago, when Muslim rebels calling themselves Seleka — “Coalition” in a local language — overthrew Francois Bozize, the former president of the Central African Republic, Ms. Florence and other Christians fled to a camp for internally displaced people near Bangui M’Poko International Airport amid the fighting because she knew French peacekeepers could protect her there.

“What alerted me were detonations and rocket launchers,” she said. “Then I saw Muslim women slaughtering Christian women and their babies with sharp knives like animals. They even killed a pregnant woman in front of me.”

But the sense of security she enjoyed has evaporated since French peacekeepers left in late 2016, handing duties over to the 13,700-strong U.N. “stabilization” mission, known as MINUSCA.

“Now we are abandoned in this neighborhood without any security and exposed to attacks from Muslims,” said Kongbe Simone, 54, an internally displaced person who lives near the airport.

He was permanently injured and lost three of his 10 children during an attack by Muslim forces on his Bangui neighborhood a few years ago. “We are scared,” said Mr. Simone. “I cannot run. In case of attack, death will find me on the spot.”

France’s departure, amid charges that U.N. peacekeepers had sexually abused residents, including children, has led to a deteriorating security situation in the Central African Republic, among the continent’s poorest countries. After decades of civil war and intermittent peace, the conflict in this central landlocked African country is heating up again. Armed patrols operate roadblocks, and reports of violence, reprisal killings, looting, kidnapping and human rights abuses continue nationwide.

The U.N. Refugee Agency recently said more than 5,000 refugees, mostly women and children, had fled to Chad since late last month. Currently, around one-fourth of the population of 4.6 million are refugees abroad or displaced internally in the country, the most ever, the agency added. More than half of the country’s population will need some form of aid this year, relief officials estimate.

Money for housing

After he assumed power in 2016 during a lull in the fighting between Seleka and Christian so-called “anti-Balaka” — or anti-machete — militias that sprung up to fight the Muslim militants over the years, President Faustin-Archange Touadera’s government offered $91 to displaced people at the airport camp and other facilities for internally displaced Christians to go home or find other housing.

Ms. Florence used the money to rent a small two-room house where five occupants sleep on an old mat on the dirt floor. She and her family live on rations distributed by humanitarian workers and cassava she grows on vacant land.

“We rent this house at [$13] per month, but we have many unpaid months,” she said. “We also have to eat. It’s really difficult. … In the neighborhood where we used to live, the Fulani currently occupy our house.”

The Fulani are a Muslim ethnic group who have occupied homes evacuated by Christians. They often clash with homeowners returning to reclaim their property.

Albert Kongbe, 18, said Fulani squatters killed one of his neighbors in August after he reclaimed his home in Yambassa, a district of Bangui.

“It was already dark,” said Mr. Kongbe. “The attackers arrested him in a dark corner and shot his chest, feet and head. The displaced were protected at the camp, now they are exposed in the neighborhoods and MINUSCA does nothing to protect them.”

MINUSCA said in a statement earlier this month that it was doing its best to quell violence in the country after anti-Balaka forces killed two people in fighting that displaced 500 people in Paoua, a city in the country’s northwest.

But in Bangui a MINUSCA soldier from Cameroon who asked to remain anonymous said Mr. Kongbe’s experience is common.

“The current situation in the Central African Republic is still tense; people are still thirsty for revenge,” said the soldier. The U.N. has helped launch a special criminal court to bring perpetrators of war crimes in the Central African Republic to justice, but leaders of some armed groups said they were not concerned.

“Our elements cannot be prosecuted by this criminal court for abuses because we are victims,” said Souleymane Daouda, political adviser and spokesman for the Unit for Peace in the Central African Republic, a group of Fulani rebels made up of more than 2,000 men who control a dozen villages in the country.

“We always react in self-defense,” he said, citing oppression they endured under Presidents Touadera and Bozize, both Christians. “Why would justice blame someone who defends himself?”

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« I am ashamed of the so-called international community, » a tearful Marie-Blanche Marboua said as she described how a U.N. soldier raped her 10-year-old son a year ago in Bouar, 300 miles from this capital city. « My son is still traumatized. » « I have realized that nothing must be expected from these white people, » she added. « Now, I put everything in the hands of God.” The U.N.’s international peacekeeping forces were sent to Central African Republic to stabilize the country after more than a decade of civil war.

While there, soldiers sexually abused hundreds of boys, girls and women, according to child rights organizations and the U.N.’s own records. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged the exploitation and pledged when he took office a year ago to crack down. In August, he appointed a victims’ rights advocate. “Sexual exploitation and abuse have no place in our world,” Guterres said in September. “It is a global menace, and it must end.”

« They are police, judge and jury »

Last year, U.N. officials vowed to improve funding and staffing for sex abuse cases. Atul Khare, under-secretary general, said those efforts have led to a 50% drop in assaults on children by peacekeepers across the globe during the first 11 months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. « We believe our new strategy is bearing some initial fruit, » said Khare, who conceded that « even one allegation is one too many. »

Uwolowulakana Ikavi-Gbetanou, a spokeswoman for U.N. peacekeeping forces in Bangui, said abuse cases have declined in this country because of new steps, such as more training of personnel and aggressive investigations of allegations. She said the U.N. also is increasing outreach to local communities to help them report abuses and provide immediate assistance. “Sexual exploitation and abuse have no place in our world,” Guterres said in September. “It is a global menace, and it must end.”

Last year, U.N. officials vowed to improve funding and staffing for sex abuse cases. Atul Khare, under-secretary general, said those efforts have led to a 50% drop in assaults on children by peacekeepers across the globe during the first 11 months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. « We believe our new strategy is bearing some initial fruit, » said Khare, who conceded that « even one allegation is one too many. » Even so, the U.N.’s own watchdog said in a June report that while progress has been made, much improvement is needed, including recording complaints and following up on accusations.

Human rights groups dispute claims of fewer assaults, saying the U.N. still does not have an accurate account of abuse victims. « The U.N. is claiming things are getting better, but it is in complete control over the assessments of people coming forward, said Paula Donovan, a former U.N. official who is co-director of AIDS-Free World, which tracks peacekeeper abuses. « They are police, judge and jury. » The number of victims is far higher than the U.N. reports, said Remy Djamouss, president of the Center for the Promotion and Defense of the Rights of Children in Bangui. His group takes the testimonies of children abused by peacekeepers. Some victims and their families fail to report assaults because they don’t know how to file a claim, believe there won’t be an impartial investigation or fear reprisals. « So people are not coming forward, »  Donovan said.

One 17-year-old girl said she did not report being raped at gunpoint in June by two peacekeepers in the city of Bria because sexual assault by U.N. soldiers is so common. She said many friends and neighbors ended up having children as a result of being raped by peacekeepers. “I did not tell people that I was raped by the peacekeepers because they would make fun of me, » said Merveille, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy as a sexual assault victim.

Another young victim is still waiting for justice. The 13-year-old girl said she was attacked two years ago at Camp M’Poko near Bangui’s international airport. « Three white soldiers told me to come get candies and cookies, » recalled Joanna, whose last name also is being withheld. « One of them covered my mouth with his hand and then the two raped me. I want these people to be punished.” Peacekeeping soldiers, who come from dozens of countries, usually are sent home when they face sexual abuse allegations, as required under U.N. rules. That policy has become a shield for alleged abusers, according to child advocates. For example, after France withdrew its troops from a non-U.N. peacekeeping mission here in 2016, French prosecutors declined to file charges against soldiers accused of raping six children, ages 9 to 13, in 2013-14.

Presumption of innocence

« The victims come to tell us how a white soldier did this, another did that,” said Claudia Toussonekeya, an attorney with the Central African Women Lawyers Association, which records dozens of complaints of sexual abuse by soldiers and other foreigners in the country. “We tell them that we can do nothing, and that even (Central African Republic’s) justice system cannot do anything. They take it badly, but we cannot do otherwise, » she said.

In fact, several peacekeepers have been punished, according to Nick Birnback, chief of public affairs at the U.N. peacekeeping unit. He said U.N. records show six soldiers serving here were jailed for abuse or sexual exploitation and one was dismissed by his government from 2015 through 2017.

Yet during the same period, according to the U.N.’s own records, there were 255 alleged victims of abuse, 141 of them children. Birnback said abuse charges against peacekeepers across the globe are handled more aggressively now, with 92% of participating countries looking into allegations, up from 42% five years ago. The average time it takes a country to appoint an investigator has fallen from 79 days in 2012 to eight days currently, he said. In addition, the U.N. has set aside $1.7 million to compensate victims. « We are witnessing a change in the mindset of both the member states and the U.N. itself, » Birnback said.

While soldiers who are accused are sent home, U.N. staff members can be tried locally because most don’t have diplomatic immunity. Still, the U.N. doesn’t deal with them harshly enough, complained AIDS activist Donovan. « If you rape a child, you might get investigated, but that is an investigation that will lead to demotion or getting fired, not jail, » she said. « They don’t want their people spending time in a jail in Central African Republic. » U.N. figures for 2015-17 show that one civilian working for the mission here was sanctioned with a contract termination because of abusive behavior.

AIDS-Free World and other groups are pushing for an independent court modeled after the International Criminal Court in The Hague to handle these cases instead of the U.N. That’s because the U.N. often hides information and pretends investigations have already been carried out when they haven’t been, children’s advocate Djamouss charged. The local groups want to name and shame accused rapists by publicizing their identities and possibly deter other soldiers from committing assaults.

But the U.N. won’t reveal identities because it says alleged perpetrators have a right to a presumption of innocence, Djamouss said. To date, not a single convicted rapist has been publicly identified in Central African Republic, according to Djamouss. Local officials remain silent because they are embarrassed about the scandal and view the peacekeeping mission as a powerful force that provides desperately needed foreign currency for a barely functioning economy, said Pierre Marie Kporon, a researcher at Bangui University who specializes in child rights violations.

« When you touch the international community that pays the salaries of civil servants, you risk having problems even with the government,” Kporon said.

As allegations of rape persist, many people here feel betrayed by an organization that sent troops to make life better for the country’s citizens. « We were told that (the peacekeepers) came to protect us,” said Beatrice Mokoyo, 45, a farmer and mother of seven in Biabo, near Bangui.

« Instead, we see that it is the (peacekeepers) who cause the rapes. It makes me sick. »

Christian Locka (Bangui) and Jabeen Bhatti( Berlin). This story was first published in January 2018.

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