France's defense minister Tuesday urged rival factions in the Central African Republic to reach a truce as peacekeepers reported fresh fighting that left 20 civilians dead in the strife-torn country.

"There is no future for the Central African Republic if there is no ceasefire" between mainly Muslim former rebels and mostly Christian vigilantes, both accused of atrocities against civilians, Jean-Yves Le Drian said over state radio.

Violence in the Central African Republic is becoming "more serious" as a political deadlock inflames tensions between rival Christians and Muslims, France's defense minister warned as he left for the war-torn country.

A dozen French peacekeeping troops were wounded last week in clashes with armed groups and Jean-Yves Le Drian admitted that efforts to stabilize the country have stalled, six months after the election of a new transitional leader.

The death toll in the Central African Republic has risen to nearly 70 in just four days, a peacekeeping officer said Thursday, following a surge of sectarian violence in the crisis-hit country.

The deaths have all happened since Monday near the central town of Bambari, which has seen a series of bloody clashes between mainly Muslim ex-Seleka rebels and Christian militias.

Nearly 50 people have been killed in three days in a fresh surge of sectarian violence in the Central African Republic, a peacekeeping officer said Wednesday.

The violence was triggered by the killing of 17 Muslims at a camp in the central Bambari region on Monday, by gunmen claiming to be from a mostly Christian militia called the anti-balaka.

Gunmen have killed 17 Muslims at a camp in the center of the strife-torn Central African Republic in the latest sectarian violence to wrack the impoverished country, peacekeepers said on Tuesday.

"Seventeen people, all of them from the (Muslim) Fulani minority, were killed on Monday by young gunmen claiming to be from the (mostly Christian) anti-balaka" militia near the town of Bambari, an officer from the African Union force told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Ten bodies showing signs of torture have been found this week in a river in the troubled Central African Republic, a security official said Thursday.

The bodies were found in the central Bambari region, close to 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the capital Bangui, and near where the mainly-Muslim ex-Seleka rebels have established their new headquarters.

Fighting between mainly Muslim ex-rebels and the largely Christian "anti-balaka" militia has killed at least 22 people in eastern Central African Republic, security officials said Thursday.

"At least 22 people have been killed and more than 30 were wounded in clashes that broke out last Monday and Tuesday" in a village outside of the central town of Bambari, a source in the local gendarmerie told Agence France Presse, asking not to be named.

The Central African government announced on Wednesday that it had requested the International Criminal Court to investigate the most serious crimes committed during more than a year of violent unrest.

"The intervention of the International Criminal Court appears to us indispensable in seeking the prosecution and conviction of those who have carried out the most serious of these crimes, which will not go unpunished," said Minister of Justice Isabelle Gaudeuille in a statement read of government radio.

Georgia has sent troops to the Central African Republic to help a European Union military force curb sectarian violence in the strife-torn country, the tiny Caucasus nation's president told Agence France Presse on Tuesday

"Georgia is providing troops to the EU's mission in the Central African Republic as part of its responsibility to contribute to global security," President Giorgi Margvelashvili said by telephone.

U.N. investigators say talk of genocide or ethnic cleaning in the Central African Republic is premature, but that evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity exists on both sides.

An international commission of inquiry appointed by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in January has submitted an interim report to Security Council members, a copy of which was seen by Agence France Presse on Thursday.