UN warns C.Africa rebels trying to blockade capital

The UN peacekeeping mission on Wednesday warned Central African Republic's armed groups were attempting to blockade the capital Bangui as part of their attempt to overthrow re-elected President Faustin Archange Touadera.

Central African rebels controlling about two thirds of the country launched an offensive a week before the December presidential elections, trying to blockade Bangui and carrying out several attacks on key national highways.

Touadera was declared re-elected by the constitutional court on Monday, though two voters out of three did not cast their ballot mainly due to insecurity in a country caught up in civil war for eight years.

Attacks on supply convoys by militia groups and their political allies including former president Francois Bozize were risking supplies of food, medicine and resources for services such as hospitals, said Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN's mission, known as MINUSCA.

"These armed groups and their political allies are responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as human rights," he said in a statement.

On Monday, a convoy of commercial trucks escorted by peacekeepers was ambushed by armed groups on one of the routes, and was forced to stop.

Three truck drivers were injured in the attack, MINUSCA said.

MINUSCA officials said the roadway had been reopened to supply traffic.

"The current constraints... on the already fragile food supply are again pushing up the prices of basic foodstuffs," UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said.

The price of some basic commodities has increased by at least 50% in some places.

The coalition rebel forces tried to advance on the capital Bangui on December 19 in an operation that Touadera said was fomented by his predecessor Bozize.

Last week, the rebels mounted their closest attack yet to Bangui, striking near the city's outskirts before being pushed back by local troops and UN forces as well as Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan troops working under a bilateral security deal.

Touadera's government controls only about one-third of the former French colony, with militia groups that emerged from a conflict in 2013 controlling the remainder of the territory.

CAR prosecutors have launched an investigation into former president Bozize, accused by the government of plotting a coup with the help of armed groups ahead of the elections.

Bozize, who denies the allegations, came to power in a coup in 2003 before being overthrown in 2013, after which the country slid into sectarian conflict.