On 21 July shortly after 6 a.m. a group of 19 young men riding on six motorbikes left Bossangoa heading north. They then crossed through a permanent Central African military checkpoint north of Bossangoa. Two or three motorbike drivers were allowed to either pass through the checkpoint or return to Bossangoa, while three or four of them were stopped by soldiers. One witness said that between 6 and 7 a.m. he saw a number of military vehicles passing the location including a pickup land cruiser, a national army land cruiser, and a gendarmerie pickup truck. Then he saw four motorcycles with white men pass the spot. According to sources Russian mercenaries were conducting patrols in the area with gendarmes.
According to witness testimony between four and six men on four motorcycles were blocking the road 12 km north of Bossangoa. They were wearing beige khaki clothes, scarves covering their faces, military boots, gloves, and sunglasses. They pointed weapons at travelers signaling with their hands to stop, which the group did a few meters away from the roadblock. Then the Russian men forced them to get off motorcycles and place their hands on their heads. The Russians took their phones, money and searched their bags. The men encircled the group and started beating and kicking them while they were laying on the ground. Then two of the Russian-speaking men pulled up members of the group one by one and shot them in the head. Two people managed to escape.
One witness said that he saw 11 bodies including eight or nine in a shallow pit near the road and two or three nearby. Another witness said that all of the people had been shot in the head. Human Rights Watch claims that they managed to obtain four photos from the massacre. One shows a pile of seven bodies near the road with some having gunshot wounds to the head. Two photos show eight corpses in a vehicle. According to the prefect of Bossangoa, authorities recovered 13 bodies. Three corpses were taken directly from the scene of the crime, while the remaining 10 were taken to the Bossangoa hospital, where relatives picked them up before doctors could examine them.[1]
