Rebel attack in Central African Republic kills at least 22

At least 22 people, including 15 local chiefs and three Doctors Without Borders workers, were killed in an attack on Nanga Boguila, a town about 280 miles north of the capital, Bangui, officials said on Sunday.

Some 2,000 French and over 5,000 African peacekeepers are struggling to halt waves of violence that have gripped the country over the last 18 months.

Gilles Xavier Nguembassa, a former member of parliament for the area, said that four people were killed as the assailants approached the town and that the rest were killed when Seleka rebels went to a Doctors Without Borders–run health clinic in search of money.

The attack took place while local chiefs were holding a meeting there, and the gunmen opened fire when some of the chiefs tried to run away, he said. "Fifteen of the local chiefs were killed on the spot," he told Reuters, citing witnesses with whom he spoke. A local representative of the Bangui government confirmed the incident.

A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders confirmed the deaths of its staffers but gave no further details. Seleka officials were not immediately available for comment.

The mainly Muslim Seleka forces seized Bangui in March 2013, and their time in power has been marred by killings and other abuses, prompting the creation of the mainly Christian anti-Balaka self-defense militias. Seleka leaders stepped down in January under intense international pressure, but the peacekeepers and a weak interim government have failed to impose their authority on the country.

Underscoring the depth of the crisis, peacekeepers escorted about 1,300 of the remaining Muslims out of Bangui on Sunday, triggering looting and deepening Muslim-Christian divisions. In Boda, a town 124 miles west of the capital, 14,000 Muslims remain trapped in an enclave of a single street, surrounded by anti-Balaka rebels.

About a million people have fled their homes during the crisis, and human rights officials say parts of the country have seen religious cleansing.  

Al Jazeera and wire services