Lynch Mob Stones Suspected Rebel to Death after President's Pep Talk

A man has been killed in a mob lynching in the capital of the Central African Republican as violence continues to spread.

The mob set on the man just minutes after President Catherine Samba-Panza had outlined plans at a public rally in Bangui to rebuild the national army to take over security from international peacekeepers.

''I would like to renew my pride in those elements of FACA (Armed Forces of Central African Republic) who are here and to ask them to support my actions wherever they are,'' Samba-Panza told the soldiers.

After she left, one man in the audience was accused by people in the crowd of being a rebel and stabbed. He was then kicked to the ground and pelted with rocks.

"I will kill him with my own hands," shouted one man who had come to enlist in the national army.

A jubilant crowd dragged his body through the streets. A police officer jumped who tried to intervene was rebuffed by the mob and accused of being a traitor. Reinforcements managed to get the corpse away from his assailants.

The lynching followed a wave of violence that claimed at least 75 lives in Boda, 120km (80 miles) east of Bangui.

Sixteen hundred French and 4,000 African troops are in CAR trying to end the fighting.

The conflict, which started in December, has pitted Muslim Seleka forces against Christian Anti-Bakala militias who have engaged in a tit-for-tat violence that has resulted in over 1,000 deaths and left nearly a million people (20% of the population) displaced.

Amnesty International has highlighted crimes against humanity being committed by both warring sides including extrajudicial executions, mutilation and rape.