By Esma Ben Said
BANGUI
At least 30 people have been killed and dozens injured in attacks over the past two days by an armed group near the market town of Bambari in the Central African Republic (CAR), a security source confirmed Thursday.
According to the source, who asked not to be named, militants from the Fulani ethnic group – nomadic Muslim herdsmen – killed people and torched and looted homes in the town of Yamale.
The source did not provide a reason for the attack, but said that the death toll could rise further.
Local residents told Anadolu Agency that hundreds of town residents had fled to Bambari, where they took shelter at internally displaced persons camps.
A senior health official in Bambari told AA that his facilities had received a number of the injured, who spoke of a "massacre" perpetrated in Yamale.
"I received three victims from Yamale. One, who lost three family members, said many people had been murdered in the bush," the source told AA.
The authorities have yet to issue an official statement on the town's current situation.
Since last year, mineral-rich CAR has been plagued by tit-for-tat sectarian violence between Christian anti-Balaka militiamen and Muslim seleka fighters.
Christians, who account for the majority of the country's population, accuse Muslims of supporting former seleka rebels blamed for attacking Christian homes, looting property and carrying out summary executions.
In September, the 12,000-troop MINUSCA – which received a U.N. Security Council mandate in May – began deploying in the troubled central African country.
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