Central African Republic demonstrators lay corpses in front of U.N. mission

Hundreds of angry demonstrators on Wednesday laid the bodies of at least nine people killed in clashes in Central African Republic’s capital Bangui in front of the headquarters of the United Nation’s mission, a Reuters witness said.

The demonstration coincides with a visit to the country, which has been mired in a cycle of ethnic and religious violence since 2013, by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the U.N.’s head of peacekeeping operations.

The peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, said late on Tuesday that one Rwandan U.N. soldier was killed and eight were wounded in clashes with armed groups in the PK5 neighbourhood, a Muslim area of the majority Christian city.

MINUSCA and local security forces launched an operation in PK5 on Sunday aimed at dismantling the bases of armed groups the U.N. said were responsible for extortion and attacks on civilians.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which operates one of the main hospitals in Bangui, said it had treated more than 40 people for gunshot wounds on Tuesday.

REUTERS