Islamist protesters in Sudan burned the French flag on Friday during their second weekly protest against France's intervention in the Central African Republic.

About 200 demonstrators accused French peacekeepers and the mostly Christian anti-balaka (anti-machete) vigilantes in Central Africa of "crimes against humanity" as they set one flag alight and cut up several others.

Libya's anti-aircraft weapons have been trafficked to neighboring countries and risk landing in the hands of terrorists, a U.N.-commissioned report said on Thursday.

An independent panel monitoring U.N. sanctions on Libya said they are worried that some of Libya's arsenal of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft weapons have been trafficked to Chad, Mali, Tunisia, and Lebanon.

Humanitarian workers are scrambling to fill a void left by the collapse of governments in three of the world's hotspots amid an unprecedented demand for help in the past year.

In Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, the World Health Organization is having to step in with other humanitarian groups to provide basic health services that would normally be delivered by a functioning government.

U.N. investigators left for the Central African Republic Monday to launch a probe into human right violations in the conflict-ravaged country amid fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The three international investigators will spend two weeks traveling the country, in the throes of bloody Muslim-Christian clashes, speaking to victims, witnesses, and the main actors in the conflict.

A group of U.N.-mandated investigators launch a probe Monday of human right violations in the conflict-ravaged Central African Republic amid fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The three international investigators will spend two weeks travelling the country, speaking with victims, witnesses, and actors in the conflict, and expect to draw up a list of suspected perpetrators.

The Central African Republic's interim president on Saturday denounced atrocities being carried out against "Muslim sisters" across the country due to the brutal sectarian violence, in a speech to mark International Women's Day.

"It is deeply sad that on this special day our Muslim sisters cannot be with us, simply because they were attacked yesterday and they fear for their safety," said Catherine Samba Panza, the first woman ever to lead Central African Republic.

About 300 fundamentalists in Sudan branded France a "criminal" and called for jihad during a Friday rally in support of Muslims in the Central African Republic, an Agence France Presse reporter saw.

"France is the chief criminal in Central Africa," said one sign carried by the protesters, many of them bearded, outside the main mosque in central Khartoum.

Top U.N. officials said Thursday a peacekeeping mission is essential for stabilizing Central African Republic and aiding civilians -- but there will be no "quick fix" there.

The nearly 12,000 peacekeepers the United Nations hopes to deploy by September will be operating in "a particularly challenging environment," U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said at the Security Council.

Abandoned by their superiors, hiding from their enemies, several hundred Christian militiamen in the Central African Republic find themselves holed up in an abandoned palace, left to train with wooden Kalashnikovs and hunt mice for food.

Once home to self-styled emperor Bokassa I in the 1970s, the crumbling palace at Berengo, some 30 kilometers (50 miles) outside the capital Bangui, is consumed by undergrowth.

Gunmen killed three former rebels in a drive-by shooting on Saturday in the capital of the Central African Republic, a security source said, adding that a fourth person was seriously injured.

The minority Muslim victims were riding in a taxi when they were shot and killed by gunmen in another vehicle, the source said.