UN peacekeepers seek to beat back ex-rebels in Central African Republic: Source

BANGUI: UN peacekeepers have launched a deadly operation to force former rebels in the Central African Republic to drop a bid to march on the capital, a military source said Sunday.

"Continued automatic weapons fire could be heard Saturday" around Sibut, a market town north of the capital Bangui, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity, while unable to give a precise casualty toll.

The operation in Sibut, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of the capital, was aimed at "forcing the ex-Seleka to return to their position near Kaga Bandoro," some 200 km further north, he said.

The 2013 ouster of Christian president Francois Bozize by the mainly Muslim fighters sparked a conflict that claimed thousands of lives and caused nearly half a million people to flee the chronically unstable country.

Last month the Seleka in Kaga Bandoro said they intended to go all the way to Bangui, the source said, adding that they had swept past peacekeepers of the MINUSCA force and neared Sibut "in recent days".

He said the rebels ignored an ultimatum to retreat by Saturday, adding: "This justified the operation that is under way."

MINUSCA however has not confirmed the operation.

Several Sibut residents reached by telephone on Sunday said they had heard heavy weapons fire in the area and noticed an unusually large MINUSCA presence.

One resident, Blaise Boikandjia, told AFP: "You can't speak of fighting in Sibut for now. Everything is happening outside the town and we can hear firing a bit farther away."

Another resident, Hilaire Yagaza, said some Sibut residents fearing fighting in the town of some 25,000 have taken refuge in the bush.

Bozize's overthrow sparked the impoverished country's worst crisis since independence from France in 1960.

Late last month a new upsurge in violence left 36 dead and caused nearly 30,000 people to flee their homes.