Rival vigilante militias in the Central African Republic clashed with heavy weapons overnight in the capital Bangui, residents said on Saturday.

The gunfire had subsided by midday, but the situation remained tense in a northern suburb of Bangui, where the fighting took place.

Two French peacekeepers in the crisis-hit Central African Republic were injured following an attack by armed fighters, France's military command said on Wednesday.

The northern town of Batangafo has become a flashpoint of violence in recent days, with clashes on Monday leaving several members of the Seleka militia dead.

The government of the strife-torn Central African Republic resigned on Tuesday as part of a peace deal reached last month with Christian and Muslim rebel factions, interim president Catherine Samba-Panza said.

The deal, signed in Brazzaville after weeks of talks, is the first part of a wider peace agreement to end violence in which thousands have died and nearly a quarter of the population have been driven from their homes since a March 2013 coup.

Rising violence from brutal Islamist groups in Africa will be a key issue at an Africa summit U.S. President Barack Obama is hosting in Washington this week.

At least 22 people were killed in clashes between rival anti-balaka and Seleka militias in the Central African Republic this week, African peacekeepers said on Friday.

"People claiming to be members of anti-balaka entered the town on Wednesday and starting shooting in the direction of the bases of former Seleka, triggering a riposte," an officer from the Misca peacekeeping force said of the fighting in the northwestern town of Batangafo.

New Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not attend an unprecedented gathering of African leaders here next week, a U.S. official said Thursday, after he was given a belated invitation.

Rival armed factions in the Central African Republic agreed to a tentative ceasefire on Wednesday at a peace conference held in neighbouring Congo. 

Peace talks between Central Africa's sectarian rivals were suspended Tuesday after the ex-rebel Seleka group failed to show up less than a day before the deadline of a deal.

The two main negotiating sessions of the talks being held in Brazzaville -- one on securing an end to hostilities, the other on disarming fighters in CAR -- were subsequently suspended.

Key players in the Central African conflict launched a fresh round of talks in Brazzaville on Monday to end more than a year of sectarian bloodshed in the impoverished nation.

The three-day forum for reconciliation and political dialogue is chaired by Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso as regional mediator in a crisis that has left thousands of civilians dead and driven more than a million people from their homes.

The former president of war-torn Central African Republic Michel Djotodia, who led the rebel Seleka militia that swept him to power last year, was renamed head of the movement on Saturday.

Djotodia fled power in January under strong international pressure for his failure to rein in rogue ex-rebels, who relentlessly murdered, raped and looted civilians.