French medical charity Médécins Sans Frontières said one of its aid workers was shot dead in Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday while on an exploratory mission in the northwest of the country.
The north-west of the former French colony has seen waves of violence in the past two years, with sporadic rebel attacks and counter-raids by government troops who have burnt thousands of straw-thatched mud houses trying to flush out rebels.
Humanitarian agencies reckon about 290 000 civilians from the northern part of the country have been forcibly displaced in the past 18 months, including 78 000 who have crossed into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Sudan.
The organisation said it had learnt ”with immense sadness” of the death of the volunteer.
”Elsa Serfass (27) was on her first mission with MSF as a logistics worker,” said a MSF statement.
Following a May 30 rebel attack on the town of N’Gaoundal and a retaliation by government forces, MSF heard that the sanitary situation in the area was ”catastrophic” and sent an exploratory mission that included Serfass, it said.
”During this evaluation, gunfire targeted our car and a bullet mortally wounded Elsa.” – Reuters