UN says its soldiers cleared rebels from town in CAR

UN peacekeepers have pushed out a leading rebel group from the restive southern town of Alindao in the perenially unstable Central African Republic, the UN mission in the country said.

Alindao has been wracked by violence and witnessed heavy fighting last month between CAR troops and rebels from the Unity for Peace in C.Africa (UPC), a key rebel group.

“Under the aegis of the military operation ‘Mo Kiri’... the UN blue helmets forced the UPC... to abandon its positions in the centre of Alindao,” Vladimir Monteiro, the spokesman for the UN mission, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, said late Sunday.