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UNICEF worker killed in Central African Republic

Wednesday, 28 February 2018 4:57 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 February 2018 4:59 PM ]

Cameroonian soldiers with the UN mission in the Central African Republic guard the site during a UN inspection in the northwestern village of Bedaya on January 12, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

A worker of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and five other education workers have been killed in an attack in the Central African Republic.

The UN agency said in a statement on Wednesday that the attack was carried out on Sunday while the team was traveling near the northeastern town of Markounda near the border with Chad.

"We strongly condemn this senseless act against aid workers who were there to improve the lives of the most vulnerable populations," UNICEF's West and Central Africa Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier said on Wednesday.

The agency said it has no more details.

The Central African Republic has been witnessing violence since a coup ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013. The coup pushed the country into an ethnic conflict between the Christian and Muslim populations. The largely Christian “anti-balaka” militias were formed to avenge what they called atrocities by the members of the Seleka group, who had been behind the coup, resulting in waves of killing, rape and pillaging ever since.

Relative peace prevailed in the impoverished country in late 2015 and 2016 but violence has intensified and spread in the last year, making it one of the world's deadliest countries for humanitarian workers.

Some 30 civilians, including six Red Cross volunteers, were killed in clashes between a militia and a self-defense group in the southeast last August.

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