Two days of fighting in Central African Republic leave at least 44 dead

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/26/fighting-central-african-republic-dead-bangui

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Red Cross workers have said they recovered 44 bodies from the streets of Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, after two days of fierce fighting in which six Chadian peacekeepers were also killed.

Georgios Georgantas, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross's delegation, said the bodies were probably only a fraction of those killed in Bangui, as his teams had been unable to access certain parts of the city.

Thousands of French and African peacekeepers have failed to contain a flare-up in violence in the past week. The mostly Muslim Séléka rebels – who seized power in March – and Christian militias have carried out tit-for-tat assaults that have recently extended to attacks on the local population.

Georgantas said the Miskine and Boy-Rabe districts on either side of the main road heading north from Bangui remained inaccessible.

A representative of the aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières confirmed that Bangui's main hospital had received more than 50 people with gunshot or machete wounds since Wednesday night.

A spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping mission (Misca) said Chadian peacekeepers were attacked by gunmen in the Gabongo neighbourhood near the airport on Wednesday. "The number of Chadian soldiers killed has risen to six because one of them died from his wounds this morning," Elio Yao said. Two French troops had been killed earlier this month, just days after Paris deployed a 1,600-strong peacekeeping mission in its former colony in early December under a UN mandate to protect civilians.

Many in the country say the bloodshed has little to do with religion, in a nation where Muslims and Christians have long lived in peace. Instead they blame a political battle for control over resources in one of Africa's weakest-governed states.

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