At least 34 massacred in central Africa

Local sources say suspected ex- Seleka rebels
killed at least 34 people ahead of arrival of new
peacekeeping force.
Suspected ex- rebels from the Central African
Republic's Seleka movement have massacred at
least 34 people in several northern villages over
the past several days, officials said .
The former rebels killed at least 34 people over
the last week in a series of attacks on remote
villages, Bienvenu Sarapata , mayor of the M 'bres
commune in north of the capital Bangui told the
AP news agency on Saturday
"At least 34 people from several villages were
killed between August 13 and 15 in the M 'bres
region by armed men identified by inhabitants as
ex- Seleka , " an officer in the African
peacekeeping force, MISCA, told the AFP news
agency on the same day .
The officer said the fleeing residents spoke of
the attackers "firing on their victims at point -
blank range and chasing them into the bush and
some of the victims died by hanging , others were
beaten or tortured to death ".
One resident who fled , Achille Ketegaza ,
confirmed that account to AFP , saying : "The
attackers arrived by foot and on motorbikes .
They fired point - blank at anybody they
encountered . They said they were going to ' clean'
eight villages between M ' bres , Ndele and Bakala
before September 15 ."
A UN force is to be deployed to the country on
September 15 .
CAR has been torn apart by ethnic and religious
violence since the Seleka , an alliance of mostly
Muslim groups , seized power in March 2013.
Their leader , Michel Djotodia , was president for
nine months before having to step down under
strong international pressure after many Seleka
fighters refused to disband and carried out
atrocities against civilians .
New government
A mostly Christian militia called the "anti -
balaka " - or anti- machete - rose to counter the
rogue Seleka fighters, but they also committed
serious crimes against civilians .
Some 2 , 000 French peacekeeping troops were
deployed alongside an African Union military
force of around 6 , 000 men from December last
year.
Transitional President Catherine Samba Panza
last week appointed a new interim prime
minister, Mahamat Kamoun , to lead a new
broad- based government with the task of ending
the chaos and overseeing a democratic transition
in the deeply poor landlocked nation .
Seleka , which controls parts of the north , has
said it will not participate in the new
government .