BANGUI, (Reuters) – At least 22 people, including 15 local chiefs and three local members of staff of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, have been killed in an attack on a town in the Central African Republic, officials said yesterday.
The attack on Saturday was in Nanga Boguila, about 450 km (280 miles) north of the capital Bangui.
Gilles Xavier Nguembassa, a former member of parliament for the area, said four people were killed as the assailants approached the town but most died when an MSF-run clinic was attacked while local chiefs were holding a meeting there.
“Fifteen of the local chiefs were killed on the spot,” he told Reuters, citing witnesses he had spoken to. A spokesman for MSF confirmed the deaths of its staff but gave no further details.
Nguembassa said the incident took place when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels came to the clinic in search of money. Seleka officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Central African Republic has been torn apart by cycles of religious violence that have forced a million people from their homes.
