Two Moroccan troops killed in Central Africa convoy attack

Two Moroccan peacekeepers died after gunmen attacked their convoy in the Central African Republic's remote southeast, the UN mission said on Wednesday.

The attack on Tuesday took place about 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the town of Obo, as the troops were escorting a convoy of fuel trucks sent from Zemio, MINUSCA said.

"Two peacekeepers died and two others were injured," it said. "The attackers fled into the bush."

Landlocked and chronically poor, the Central African Republic is struggling to emerge from a civil war that erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition.

The 12,500-strong MINUSCA peacekeeping mission was deployed in December that year under the aegis of the African Union and with the support of France, the former colonial power.

Militias are still flourishing given the weakness of the state.

The notorious Ugandan group, the Lord's Resistance Army, has been operating in the Obo region for several years.