33 Killed in Monday fighting in Central African Republic
June 28, 2006 (BANGUI) — Fighting this week between Chadian insurgents and government and African peacekeeping troops in Central African Republic left at least 33 people dead, a U.N. official said Wednesday.
Monday’s fighting near the country’s northern border with Chad killed 20 rebels, 11 government troops and two peacekeepers from a central African regional block, U.N. spokeswoman Laba Toure told The Associated Press.
Toure was citing figures from the 350-soldier peacekeeping unit sent to the country by the six-nation Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa during a previous bout of unrest.
The government Tuesday blamed Chadian rebels seeking to topple the regime of President Idriss Deby there for launching an attack that sparked the fighting, but gave no details on casualties.
The region, which also borders the conflict-ridden western Sudan region of Darfur, has also been the base of the Central African Republic’s own rebel forces.
Central African Republic has suffered decades of army revolts, coups d’etat and rebellions since the nation of 3.6 million gained independence from France in 1960.
International observers are growing increasingly concerned about instability in the region where Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic meet.