Armed clashes in northern CAR, 16 dead and 20 injured

Sixteen people have reportedly been killed with twenty others injured in clashes between gunmen in the north of the Central African Republic, according to police sources.

The deadly clashes according to an anonymous police officer was between pastoralist Fulani groups of armed men from the former Seleka rebel group. The clashes are believed to have started last Sunday and extended to Monday.

#BREAKING 16 killed in clashes in Central African Republic: security sources

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 21, 2016

“According to a first report, 16 people for most armed Fulani, were killed and more than twenty others injured in clashes,” the officer stationed in Kaga Bandoro told AFP.

The current situation comes on the back of a Monday night joint security operation that forced people to flee the capital Bangui. The operation followed the kidnapping of six police men and AFP reports that police said the number of casualties was three.

The country has just emerged from ethnic conflict which started with the overthrow of former leader Francois Bozize, following that was retaliatory attacks that destabilized the country leading to international intervention by the United Nations.

Elections earlier this year and a peaceful political transition was seen as a forward step in stabilizing the country, but that has occasionally been threatened by the pockets of tensions in parts of the country.

Last week, at least ten people were killed and several others injured in an attack by suspected Fulani and ex-Seleka rebels in the western part of the country marking the first major violence since the election of President Touadera in February.