U.N. Says Thousands Flee C. African Violence

Thousands of people have fled violence in the Central African Republic in recent days, with as many as 6,000 temporarily taking refuge at the Bangui airport, the United Nations said Thursday.

"Over the past 10 days arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, extortion, armed robberies, physical violence, restriction of movement, lootings and attacks on civilians have displaced thousands of people," the U.N.'s refugee agency said in a statement.

The abuses in parts of the capital have been carried out by "armed groups," Babar Baloch, a U.N. refugee agency spokesman in Geneva told Agence France Presse, adding that a lack of security on the ground in Bangui had prevented his colleagues there from determining which forces specifically were responsible.

The exact number of people fleeing the violence in the capital was also unclear, he said, stressing though that "it's a big number, in the thousands."

A rebel coalition called Seleka seized power in the highly unstable and deeply poor landlocked nation in March, ousting president Francois Bozize but retaining his opposition prime minister, Nicolas Tiangaye and agreeing to an 18-month political transition.

Last week, an operation carried out by fighters of the newly installed regime to disarm diehard Bozize supporters led to at least 11 deaths in Bangui's northern Boy-Rabe and Boeing districts, hospital sources said. About 35 people were injured.

Boy-Rabe is considered a stronghold of backers of Bozize, who first came to in a 2003 coup and was twice re-elected before the Seleka uprising forced him to flee last March 24. Seleka leader Michel Djotodia was sworn into office as new president on August 18.

Djotodia on Wednesday ordered warlords from the Seleka forces to return to their bases and allow police and paramilitary gendarmes to take over, in a bid to restore order after French President Francois Hollande warned earlier this week that the country was on the road to becoming a failed state.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday that most of those affected by the latest round of violence came from the Boy-Rabe and Boeing neighbourhoods, adding that most of them had sought refuge in other parts of the capital.

Some 5,000 to 6,000 people, many of them women and children, had taken refuge at Bangui International Airport, and were "blocking the runway for air traffic" and causing all flights to be rerouted to Douala in Cameroon, the U.N. agency said.

Airport sources meanwhile told AFP that soldiers from the African stabilization mission in the country (MISCA) had along with French troops evacuated more than 1,000 of the people there overnight, using tear gas.

The troops cleared the runway after two delayed flights on Wednesday, while an Air France arrival due early Thursday was postponed until the evening, but hundreds of refugees remained on the tarmac, close to aircraft docking areas.

Some 500 other refugees were also holed up at the Amitie hospital, "where overcrowding and deteriorating sanitary conditions are a major concern," UNHCR said.

"We call authorities to protect civilians. People should be able to return to home," Baloch said.

There were already more than 206,000 internally displaced people in Central Africa before the recent events, according to UNHCR.