A member of parliament for the region told AFP on Friday that six soldiers were killed in a rebel assault in the Central African Republic’s southeast, where civil war has raged for years.

“At four in the morning, rebels attacked the town of Nzako,” near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of the capital Bangui, said Gabin Mboli Fouele.

“There are six soldiers dead and three rebels were also killed.”

Mboli Fouele said the Coalition of Patriots for Change, set up in December 2020 to oust President Faustin Archange Touadera, had carried out the raid.

“The rebels sacked the town before withdrawing into the bush but they will be back some time,” he added.

The town’s mayor Adja Kaltouma Gandja confirmed the attack but did not have a casualty toll.

Civil war broke out in the impoverished nation in 2013, pitting myriad militias against a state on the verge of collapse, but the bloodshed had eased considerably since 2018.

At the end of 2020 numerous rebel groups united to try to overthrow Touadera just before elections.

The president called on Moscow for help and Russian paramilitary forces pushed back the rebels, who still hold sway over swathes of the country.

In March, long-awaited national reconciliation discussions were held, but no rebel organisations were invited, prompting the opposition to boycott them.