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Two killed in Central Africa riot - witnesses
Thu 5 Jan 2006 2:30 PM ET

BANGUI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Two people were killed in rioting in Central African Republic on Thursday after security forces opened fire in a confrontation with a crowd mourning a murdered soldier, witnesses said.

A Reuters reporter saw what appeared to be the dead bodies of a man and a woman being carried in the direction of a morgue in the country's capital Bangui after the clashes in a populous quarter on the northern edge of the city.

The crowd was mourning a soldier killed on Tuesday by a member of the presidential guard in a tit-for-tat killing which sparked street protests by youths later that day.

Security sources said the dead man had killed a fellow member of the security forces hours before he was shot.

Local people told Reuters that two bars destroyed in Thursday's rioting had links with family members of President Francois Bozize, who came to power in a military coup in 2003 and won a presidential election last May.

Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries on earth and has been racked for years by periodic coups, army mutinies and violence.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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