Rebels attack Central African Republic village, kill six

Rebels killed six civilians and wounded several others on Saturday in an attack on a village in the northeast of the volatile Central African Republic, the UN peacekeeping mission said.

“This morning at dawn, elements from the 3R (Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation) launched a large-scale attack against C.African army positions in the village of Mann,” the spokesman for the UN’s MINUSCA  mission said.

“Six civilians were killed and several wounded,” he added.

The village is about 550 kilometres (340 miles) from the capital Bangui, Lieutenant Colonel Abdoulaziz Fall told AFP.

CAR is the second least-developed country in the world according to the UN and is still suffering from the aftermath of a brutal civil conflict that erupted in 2013.

President Faustin Archange Touadera was re-elected in December on a turnout of fewer than one in three voters.

The ballot was hampered by armed groups that at the time controlled around two-thirds of the country, and rebels mounted an offensive in the runup to polling day. Punch