Members of an alliance of armed groups known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) assaulted a military camp on the outskirts of Bakouma town early on Thursday morning, said a local government official who did not wish to be named for security reasons.

Six soldiers and four rebels were killed, he said.

The attack was confirmed by the head of a hospital in the nearby city of Bangassou, also on condition of anonymity, where bodies and wounded soldiers were taken.

Mineral-rich Central African Republic has been mired in violence since a coalition of mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted then-president Francois Bozize in 2013, sparking reprisals from mostly Christian militias.

In recent years the army – backed by United Nations peacekeepers, Russian and Rwandan troops – has been battling CPC militants seeking to overturn the outcome of an election in December 2020 that saw President Faustin-Archange Touadera clinch a second term.

The U.N. has accused all parties of abuses including summary killings, torture, conflict-related sexual violence and the use of child fighters among others.

It has lost over 160 peacekeepers in a conflict that has displaced more than 1 million people.

A Special Criminal Court set up in 2015 to prosecute war crimes committed in the country kicked off its first trial last week.

(Reporting by Judicael YongoWriting by Sofia ChristensenEditing by Alexander Winning and Frances Kerry)