Red Cross worker shot dead in Central African Republic

An unidentified armed group in Central African Republic shot and killed a Red Cross worker in a town where more than 100 people have died in militia attacks in recent weeks, the Red Cross said on Monday.

Joachim Ali, a Red Cross volunteer in the diamond-mining town of Bangassou in the southeast of the country, was killed on Friday evening while on duty at the organisation's compound, according to a spokesman.

He is the second Red Cross worker to be killed during the conflict, after a driver died in 2014. The Central African Red Cross Society is investigating Ali's death, a statement said.

Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled their homes in the conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.

Thirteen of the 14 armed groups along with representatives from the government signed a peace accord last Monday in Rome brokered by the Roman Catholic Sant' Egidio peace group.

About 50 people were killed in the town of Bria, northeast of the capital, in fighting between factions shortly afterwards.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)