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Red Cross says 6 volunteers killed in Central African Republic

by Reuters
Wednesday, 9 August 2017 12:22 GMT

In this 2014 archive photo local Red Cross workers carry a body as they move bodies from a mass grave at a military camp in the 200 villas neighbourhood of Bangui, Central African Republic. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

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Civilians and medical staff may also have been killed in the attack

DAKAR, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Six Red Cross volunteers were killed in an attack on a health centre in southeast Central African Republic on August 3, the aid organisation said in a statement on Wednesday.

Civilians and medical staff may also have been killed in the attack, by unknown assailants, the Red Cross said, adding that more details were not yet available.

Militia violence has intensified in southeast Central African Republic this year, including attacks on peacekeepers and aid workers, prompting fears of a possible return to large-scale chaos that gripped the country at the peak of a 2013 civil war.

The six volunteers killed were all from Central African Republic and were participating in a crisis meeting at a health centre in the town of Gambo, in the Mbomou prefecture, the Red Cross said.

It was the third attack on Red Cross workers in Central African Republic this year, which include the shooting in June of one worker in the diamond-mining town of Bangassou, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) away.

(Reporting by Nellie Peyton and Edward McAllister; Editing by Tim Cocks and Alister Doyle)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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