Central African Republic News

Becker, 50, has claimed diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in London by taking up a role with the Central African Republic as a sports envoy.

The Central African Republic`s leaders asked Russia several months ago to provide weapons for units being formed by the EU.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously agreed to beef up the UN mission in the Central African Republic with 900 extra troops and step up measures to prevent sex abuse by peacekeepers.

Deadly ethnic fighting in Central African Republic could descend into a much larger-scale conflict if nothing is done to disarm combatants and defuse tensions, a UN report said on Friday.

There were also clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bria, a central town.

Hospital workers confirmed that 59 bodies are in the morgue and at least 18 others are with families for burial. 

A Bambari police officer said: "We have counted in total 77 deaths, most of them men. But there are also many injured, including some in a serious condition."

At least 15 people died in clashes between UN peacekeepers and former rebels in the centre of the chronically restive Central African Republic, a humanitarian source said on Sunday.

The United Nations said Monday that $1.4 billion (1.3 billion euros) was needed this year alone to help the nearly two million people who have fled war and famine in South Sudan.

A militia chief and two of his henchmen were shot dead in clashes in Bangui, Central African Republic's capital, sparking a backlash in which a pastor was also killed, police said today.

The statement said the two groups would be "held responsible for the violence, particularly on civilians."

Many Central Africans are worried about the departure of the French troops, who were urgently deployed following a wave of bloodshed in December 2013.

Urgent funding is needed to keep thousands of people alive in Boko Haram-hit northeast Nigeria, the UN said Monday, stressing that the situation borders on famine and compares to crises in Darfur and South Sudan.

The alleged abuse, which dates back to May and took place in the central region of Kemo, reportedly involved a 12-year-old and another minor under 18.

Judges at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba to 18 years in jail for a series of brutal rapes and murders in Central African Republic over a decade ago.

Bemba, 53, was found guilty in March of five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his private army called the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC).

The UN has said it is the responsibility of member states to ensure they impose the "strongest disciplinary and criminal sanctions" against any of their peacekeepers found guilty of sexual exploitation.

More than 100 victims have come forward in the Central African Republic with appalling new accounts of sexual abuse, including bestiality, by UN peacekeepers and French troops, the United Nations has said.

The United Nations on Wednesday said it has widened an investigation of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by foreign peacekeepers in Central African Republic and notified authorities in France, Gabon and Burundi about the charges.

The United Nations on Monday reported two new sexual abuse cases allegedly involving peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, one implicating a contingent from Burundi and the other a Moroccan soldier.