Two people were killed during anti-government protests in the Central African Republic on Friday following a wave of violent clashes across the capital Bangui. 

Troops and police fired warning shots in a bid to stop thousands of protesters who had gathered in different parts of Bangui on Friday calling for the interim government to resign, witnesses and military sources told Agence France Presse.

At least 15 people, including a priest, were killed and several others wounded in clashes Wednesday in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, a military source said.

The violence erupted in the afternoon close to the Our Lady of Fatima church in central Bangui, where thousands of displaced people have sought refuge, according to a police officer and a military source.

Chad said Wednesday it had withdrawn its entire contingent from the Central African Republic, in the wake of accusations its troops had carried out an unprovoked attack in the capital Bangui last month.

"The last soldier crossed the border on April 13," Souleyman Adam, the head of the Chadian unit with the African peacekeeping force MISCA, said at a ceremony in the southern town of Sarh.

Chadian soldiers sent to repatriate their compatriots from the Central African Republic opened fire on residents in Bangui, killing at least eight people, the African peacekeeping force MISCA said Sunday.

The incident happened on Saturday when some Chadian soldiers "opened fire on residents of the northern neighborhoods (in Bangui), leaving at least eight people dead and several wounded," an officer with the MISCA force who requested anonymity told Agence France Presse.

The European Union on Saturday signaled that it is ready to deploy its delayed peacekeeping force to help put down the escalating crisis in Central African Republic, after obtaining additional backing for the mission.

The troops were due to deploy last week, but there were insufficient soldiers for the mission and not enough aircraft at hand to transport them.

At least 20 people died when extremists threw hand grenades at a crowd of mourners during a funeral service in the Central African Republic capital Bangui overnight, the government said on Friday.

"Around 11:00 pm (Thursday) a group of extremists, well known to the police, threw hand grenades at a crowd that was attending a wake," Public Security Minister Denis Wangao Kizimale told national radio.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday sounded a strong note of alarm over the escalation of violence in recent days in the capital of the Central African Republic.

"I am alarmed by the deteriorating situation in Bangui and the escalation of violence there since March 22," she said.

At least four people have been killed in clashes between armed groups and international peacekeepers in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, a military official said Sunday.

A further seven people were injured when violence erupted Saturday in the PK-5 district of Bangui between Christian militia and Muslim groups, said an officer with the African Union military force known as MISCA.

Two African peacekeepers were killed in weekend fighting with militiamen in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, where fresh clashes erupted on Monday, a top commander with the international force said.

Two Chadian peacekeepers and two fighters from the mostly Christian anti-balaka militia died in the fighting Sunday, Martin Tumenta, head of military operations with the African-led MISCA force, told AFP.

A mob lynched a Muslim on Friday after he fell off a crowded lorry taking frightened civilians out of the strife-torn capital of the Central African Republic, witnesses said.

A large convoy of lorries and taxis packed with Muslims fleeing Christian vigilantes headed north from Bangui under a slew of insults from angry residents, locals said.