Chad Peacekeepers Killed in C. Africa Capital Clashes

Five peacekeepers from Chad have been killed in clashes in the Central African Republic capital, the force's spokesman told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

The circumstances of the deaths in Bangui on Wednesday were unclear, Eloi Yao said.

"Yesterday the city was in total chaos and this chaos lasted until the end of the night, today we are trying to understand what happened," he said.

The Chadian contingent of the African Union peacekeeping force has been accused of siding with a mostly Muslim former rebel group in the strife-torn majority Christian country.

Heavy arms fire erupted in the capital Bangui on Wednesday, triggering panic among residents and prompting a French force to deploy armored vehicles near the airport, where French and African peacekeepers are based and where tens of thousands of civilians are seeking refuge from deadly sectarian violence.

The fighting subsided by late evening and on Thursday French peacekeepers were out in force in the streets of the capital that were still largely deserted.

The resource-rich but impoverished country has been wracked by ever-escalating violence since a March coup by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels.

French and African Union troops have been struggling to restore order in the notoriously unstable nation since receiving a U.N. mandate in early December.

The task has been complicated by accusations that soldiers from Chad, which is mainly Muslim and which has been traditionally influential in its neighbor, have been siding with the Muslim Seleka.

The accusations have been fanned by several incidents, including deadly ones, involving the Chad troops, and on Wednesday the African Union MISCA force announced that its Chadian contingent would be re-deployed from the capital to the north of the country.

In Wednesday's deadly clashes, the Christian vigilante groups appeared to have attacked Chadian troops in the Gobongo neighborhood, near the city's airport, according to residents reached by telephone.

The Chadians pushed back the attack with help from Seleka fighters, several residents told AFP. The reports could not be confirmed with the AU force or French peacekeepers.