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Rebel fighters captured the city of Bangassou, in south central Africa, on Sunday, weeks after they were accused of a coup attempt and before the partial results of a tense presidential election.
“The rebels control the city,” Rosevel Pierre Louis, head of the regional office of the UN peacekeeping force MINUSCA in the city, told AFP. “They are everywhere.”
The government troops had “abandoned their position and are at our base,” he added.
Early Sunday, MINUSCA tweeted that UN peacekeepers had been protecting the city and the bodies of five fighters had been found.
He also tweeted that the fighters attacking the city were allies of former President Francois Bozize.
Since December 19, a coalition of rebel groups, which controls two-thirds of the coup-prone country, has been waging an offensive initially aimed at disrupting the elections that were nonetheless held on December 27.
The government of President Faustin Archange Touadera has accused Bozize of fomenting a coup attempt, a charge that he has denied.
Bangassou, which is on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is about 750 kilometers (470 miles) from the capital, Bangui.
“The city has been under attack since 5.25am (0425 GMT) and there are clashes everywhere,” Louis told AFP.
Bishop Aguirre de Bangassou confirmed that the clashes had started at 5 in the morning and said that “there are shots and detonations in the center of the city.”
Bangassou frequent target
The landlocked country is one of the poorest in the world and one of the most volatile, suffering coups and wars since independence from France in 1960.
In 2013, it spiked once again in bloodshed when then-President Bozize, who had seized power in a coup a decade earlier, was toppled by a largely Muslim coalition called Seleka.
Bangassou has previously been the target of brutal attacks.
In 2017, “anti-Balaka” militiamen, mainly from Christian communities, attacked the city, killing dozens of Muslim civilians and 12 UN peacekeepers.
Ismail, a Bangassou resident, said Sunday’s attack was expected locally for about two weeks and that many had fled over the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“My children left, I stayed with my wife,” Ismail told AFP as shots were heard over the phone.
The attack came a day after armed groups carried out an early dawn assault on the city of Damara, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of the capital, Bangui.
MINUSCA spokesman Vladimir Monteiro told AFP that there was an “incursion” in Damara on Saturday, but that Central African soldiers “intervened and armed groups fled.”
He added that MINUSCA, which has 11,500 peacekeepers in the country, had sent patrols to the town.
The UN force was not yet able to provide details on the number of deaths and injuries in the Bangassou or Damara attacks.
Touadera is the favorite to win last weekend’s elections, which opposition groups have called for annulled because, among other reasons, the votes were only held in a fraction of the country.
Final first round results are not expected before January 18, and if there is no outright winner, a second round will take place on February 14.
