At least nine people have been killed and dozens others wounded in Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui, in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a church, reports Reuters news agency.
Notre Dame de Fatima cathedral was attacked with gunfire and grenades during a morning service, witnesses said.
French broadcaster RFI is reporting that a priest was among those killed (in French).
It was not clear if all the people taken to the hospital were killed in the church.
A dozen people were killed in the same church when it was targeted in 2014, according to the UN.
A local journalist has tweeted footage of what he says is a mass of people marching down Bangui’s Avenue Barthélemy Boganda, close to the presidential palace and where the UN is based, calling on the president to bring security to the country.
CAR was plunged into turmoil in 2013 when Muslim rebels from the Séléka umbrella group seized power in the majority-Christian country. A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-balaka, rose up to counter the Séléka.
A new government elected in 2016 has failed to bring peace to the mineral-rich nation which has been unstable since its independence from France in 1960.
Last month,the UN said protesters who placed corpses in front of their headquarters in Bangui were using the bodies for “propaganda”.
Source: BBC