Militia attack in CAR town kills two peacekeepers – UN

UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic said suspected Christian militiamen have killed two Moroccan peacekeepers.
MINUSCA said this is the second deadly attack on Moroccan forces this week in Central African Republic.
The UN said in a statement that the peacekeepers were ambushed by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the town of Banagassou, 700 km east of the capital Bangui, as they stocked up water to deliver to the population.
Tuesday’s raid, which injured a third soldier, followed similar attacks by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the diamond-mining town in recent days, including one on Sunday that killed a Moroccan peacekeeper and left three others wounded.

“I am shocked by these new losses of human life and I firmly condemn this flagrant violation of the right to life and of international law,” mission chief Parfait Onanga-Anyanga said in the statement.

Thousands have died in an ethnic and religious conflict that broke out when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.
Violence has escalated in CAR since former colonial power France ended its peacekeeping mission in the country in 2016, and in spite of a peace deal signed between the government and rival factions in Rome in June.