Bangui - At least 20 people were killed over three days of
fighting between soldiers and rebels in the Central African Republic,
a local legislator said on Thursday.
Rebels from the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic
(UPC), a splinter group of the mainly Muslim Seleka militia, had been
attacking army positions in the northern town of Bambari since
Monday, said local legislator Aubin Amadou.
On Thursday, the rebels continued to occupy public buildings
including the gendarmerie, the police station, the prefecture and a
local radio station, according to the legislator.
About 40,000 residents fled the town of 90,000 due to the clashes,
while dozens of homes had been burned down and shops looted, Amadou
said.
Medical aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had
attended to 17 injured people since Monday.
The diamond-rich but poverty-stricken nation has been in crisis since
late 2012, when violence broke out between Muslim and Christian rebel
groups.
After a period of relative calm in 2016, fighting erupted again in
early 2017 in various towns across the country.