At least 30 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in fighting between mainly Christian militia and predominantly Muslim rebels in the strife-torn Central African Republic, police said today.
The victims, "the majority of them civilians" caught in the crossfire, died during clashes yesterday that also left more than 10 people wounded in the central town of Dekoa, police said.
The fighting pitted so-called "anti-balaka" militia against members of the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group that seized power for 10 months in March 2013, unleashing a wave of brutal tit-for-tat killings in the former French colony.
Police said the "anti-balaka" -- which means "anti-machete" in the local Sango language -- attacked the Seleka positions early in the morning yesterday in the town some 300 kilometres north of the capital Bangui.
But the fighting escalated when the Seleka called in reinforcements and lasted more than four hours, police added.
"Most of the victims were civilians who were hit by stray bullets," the police source said.
Thousands of people have been killed and around a quarter of the impoverished country's 4.6 million people have been displaced by the violence unleashed by the Seleka coup.
Some 6,000 African and 2,000 French peacekeepers have struggled to keep the violence in check.
The UN Security Council is expected tomorrow to authorise the deployment of about 12,000 peacekeepers in September to help stop the bloodshed.
