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Clashes shook Thursday to Thursday the city of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, in a climate of violence characterized by violence after the death of a salesman by a local militia.
The PK5 district has become a flashpoint in this troubled country, already weakened by sectarian violence and pursued by the militia.
"It started with a conflict between a gasoline vendor and young gunmen," said Awad Al Karim, Imam of Ali Babolo Mosque, explaining that the seller did not want to pay a tax imposed by a local self-defense unit.
Two youths then threw a grenade, killing a 40-year-old man. The family of the victim turned to a rival militia to avenge his murder, causing clashes on Wednesday.
The shooting continued during the night and Thursday, told AFP spokesman of the UN mission in CAR, Vladimir Monteiro.
"We sent patrols into the district," he said.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 10 people were injured Thursday morning.
The shooting resumed on Thursday morning and the shops of Barthelemy Boganda Avenue, an artery of the neighborhood, were closed and the streets deserted, said an AFP journalist.
"It started with a simple racket case, but the market is empty and people are scared," said a trader.
The distinction between combatants and civilians is sometimes difficult to establish in the PK5 district, a major economic center that has been an intermittent battlefield since 2014.
CAR is one of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world.
It sank in blood in 2013 after the overthrow of the country's longtime leader, François Bozizé, by a Muslim-majority rebel alliance, the Seleka.
Nominally Christian militias called the anti-Balaka appeared in reaction, accelerating the cycle of sectarian violence.
Former colonial power, France intervened militarily from 2013 to 2016 to expel the Seleka, then put an end to the operation.
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