Small and wiry with a Bin Laden-style beard, General Mahamat Al Khatim is absolute master of a vast region in northern Central African Republic, far from the reach of the capital Bangui.

Al Khatim, whose public appearances are a show of power and wealth in one of Africa's poorest and most battered nations, is one of the warlords who emerged from the Seleka ("Alliance") of mainly Muslim rebels that toppled president Francois Bozize in 2013.

A U.N. peacekeeper was killed in the Central African Republic Tuesday following a clash with Muslim Seleka rebels that comes just weeks before elections in the troubled country.

The soldier from the MINUSCA force was found dead in Batangafo, north of Bangui, a United Nations spokesman said.

At least one person was killed and 10 injured in fresh sectarian clashes in a flashpoint neighborhood of the Central African Republic's capital of Bangui, military and hospital sources said Friday.

The violence late Thursday in the largely Muslim district of PK-5, accompanied by gunfire, forced thousands of residents to flee to other parts of the city.

U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic clashed with rebels who were attempting to march on the capital, a military source told AFP Sunday, adding that the offensive ended with the militants taking flight.

The fighting near Sibut, a market town some 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Bangui, erupted after Seleka rebels ignored an ultimatum to halt their advance on Bangui, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The interim leader of the Central African Republic has accused those behind a surge in deadly violence in the capital Bangui of plotting a coup.

"This was nothing short of an attempt to take power by force," president Catherine Samba Panza said on national radio late Wednesday after she returned to Bangui, cutting short a visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Peacekeepers and protesters on Wednesday removed barricades set up in the Central African Republic capital Bangui during a wave of violence that killed at least 36 people and forced 30,000 to flee.

Interim president Catherine Samba Panza was on her way home from the U.N. General Assembly after cutting short her visit to New York amid fears of a return to sectarian conflict.

The streets of the capital of the Central African Republic were deserted, with terrified residents sheltering indoors and tens of thousands fleeing their homes after three days of shooting and bloodshed.

"We fear that the violence we're seeing in Bangui is a return to the dark days of late 2013 and 2014, when thousands were killed and tens of thousands had to flee their homes," U.N. refugee agency spokesman Leo Dobbs told reporters Tuesday.

The Central African Republic's president appealed for calm Tuesday as the United Nations reported 36 people dead and almost 30,000 displaced in three days of bloodshed terrorizing the capital Bangui.

"We fear that the violence that we're seeing in Bangui is a return to the dark days of late 2013 and 2014, when thousands were killed and tens of thousands had to flee their homes," U.N. refugee agency spokesman Leo Dobbs told reporters.

Three protesters were killed in the tense capital of the Central African Republic on Monday when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on a crowd amid a resurgence of deadly violence in the country.

Three died and seven were injured by gunfire, a hospital source said, as a crowd of several hundred headed for the presidency to demand the resignation of interim leader Catherine Samba Panza after the deaths of at least 20 people in Bangui at the weekend.

More than 20 people have been killed and around 100 injured in clashes in the capital of the Central African Republic, a military doctor said Sunday.

The new toll was up from 10 people earlier confirmed killed and 38 wounded in the unrest on Saturday sparked by the murder of a motorcycle-taxi driver in the Muslim-majority PK-5 neighborhood.