Summary Seleka and anti-balaka fighters have been accused of serious abuses and atrocities.
BANGUI (AFP) - Armed men kidnapped a female UN employee in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic on Tuesday, a day after two aid workers were seized, said a source with the UN force.
The gunmen, who appeared to be linked to the mainly Christian militia known as the anti-balaka, seized the woman from a van taking UN staffers to work in Bangui, the source with the UN s Minusca force in the country said on condition of anonymity.
On Monday, a 67-year-old French woman and a local man were kidnapped in central Bangui, reportedly by anti-balaka militia who are angry at the arrest of one of their leaders by UN peacekeepers on Saturday.
Rodrigue Nagibona, alias General Andjilo, who was accused of masterminding a massacre of some 300 minority Muslims in December 2013 and who had been on the run for several months, was detained in the country s northwest.
Violence between rival factions has plunged the deeply poor, landlocked country into an unprecedented political and security crisis.
The unrest began when a coalition of mostly Muslim Seleka members mounted a coup in March 2013, installing the former French colony s first Muslim president, Michel Djotodia.
Many Seleka fighters then went on rampages, sparking the rise of the so-called anti-balaka vigilante groups in mainly Christian communities.
Both Seleka and anti-balaka fighters have been accused of serious abuses and atrocities.
Anti-balaka means "anti-machete" in the local Sango language and refers to the weapon of choice wielded by the Seleka -- but also taken up by the vigilantes.
