UN says its soldiers cleared rebels from southern town

• Despite a peace accord signed between the government and 14 rebel groups, including the UPC.
• UN peacekeepers have pushed out a leading rebel group from the restive southern town of Alindao in the perenially unstable Central African Republic.
• The violence has forced a quarter of the country's 4.7 million inhabitants to flee their homes.

BANGUI: UN peacekeepers have pushed out a leading rebel group from the restive southern town of Alindao in the perenially unstable Central African Republic, the UN mission in the country said.

Alindao has been wracked by violence and witnessed heavy fighting last month between CAR troops and rebels from the Unity for Peace in C.Africa (UPC), a key rebel group.

"Under the aegis of the military operation 'Mo Kiri'... the UN blue helmets forced the UPC... to abandon its positions in the centre of Alindao," Vladimir Monteiro, the spokesman for the UN mission, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, said late Sunday.

Monteiro said all "armed UPC elements" had been evicted from the town, an important trading hub.

Despite a peace accord signed between the government and 14 rebel groups, including the UPC, in February last year, more than two-thirds of the former French colony is still under the control of armed rebel groups fighting over its rich mineral resources.

The UPC, led by Ali Darassa, is one the main rebel groups and is present over a swathe of territory from the central Bambari region up to the border with South Sudan.

"MINUSCA reported on Friday January 31 that the UPC had effectively dismantled its base... and its barricades at entry and points," Monteiro said.

"MINUSCA will continue to maintain pressure on the UPC and other armed groups," said Mankeur Ndiaye, the MINUSCA chief and the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Central Africa.

The latest round of civil conflict in CAR erupted in 2013 and took a sectarian turn, pitting Christians against Muslims. The violence has forced a quarter of the country's 4.7 million inhabitants to flee their homes.