C.Africa Leader Wants to 'Go to War' against anti-Balaka Militias

The new president of the restive Central African Republic, Catherine Samba Panza, said Wednesday she wants to "go to war" against self-defense militias known as anti-balaka, for their lynchings and violence especially targeting Muslim civilians.

"We are going to go to war against the anti-balaka," she said in the town of Mbaiki, south of the capital Bangui, during a visit by French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, whose country has deployed troops to Central Africa to quell sectarian bloodshed.

"They think that because I'm a woman I'm weak. But now the anti-balaka who want to kill will themselves be hunted," she said.