A weekend of violence and looting in the Central African capital has left at least 11 people dead, including two Muslims who were gruesomely lynched and a lawmaker gunned down in a drive-by shooting.
Fighting flared up on Saturday evening between Christian vigilantes and Muslims in the west of Bangui where many buildings were torched, according to witnesses.
A resident told AFP that the Muslim killer of a Christian woman was lynched and killed before his body was burned and dumped in front of the local town hall, where it could be seen early on Sunday.
A suspected Christian militiaman killed another Muslim civilian, and was about to burn the body when Rwandan soldiers of the African peacekeeping force MISCA shot him dead, a witness who gave his name as Innocent told AFP.
The shooting prompted an angry crowd to shout slogans against the Rwandan soldiers, whom they mistakenly believed to be Muslim. "Death to the Rwandans", one shouted, according to Innocent.
Five other people were killed in unclear circumstances, the witnesses said.
Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch confirmed the witness reports and said another Muslim was lynched early on Sunday near Bangui's central market.
On Sunday the Central African League of Human Rights told AFP that a Bangui lawmaker had been gunned down by attackers on a motorcycle.
The former French colony has been engulfed in violence for nearly a year since the Seleka rebel group installed Michel Djotodia as the country's first Muslim leader in a March 2013 coup.
