At least 20 people have been killed and dozens injured in the latest inter-ethnic clashes in the Central African Republic, police said on Monday.

An official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said the violence broke out on Friday when mainly Christian anti-balaka militias launched an attack against rebels of the largely Muslim former Seleka alliance and Peul in the central region of Bambari.

At least 28 people have died and dozens have been injured in the latest clashes between rival militias in the Central African Republic, which was ravaged by a months-long sectarian bloodbath, police said Thursday.

The fighting in the diamond-rich but dirt poor former French colony pitted the so-called "anti-balaka" militia formed by the Christian majority against mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who led a March 2013 coup, a police official said.

The U.N. appealed Monday for $16.4 billion (13.4 billion euros) to provide aid to nearly 60 million people worldwide next year, with almost half the amount aimed at helping victims of Syria's drawn-out conflict.

"The rising scale of need is outpacing our capacity to respond," warned United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, stressing that 2014 has been marked by a sharp rise in the number of people affected by violent conflicts.

France's defense minister said Friday troops would start gradually withdrawing from the Central African Republic as the United Nations ramps up the number of peacekeepers in the conflict-wracked nation.

"We are currently 2,000, we will be 1,500 in the spring," Jean-Yves Le Drian told the BFMTV television network.

Communal clashes have left four people dead and more than a dozen wounded at Bambari in the unstable Central African Republic, the U.N. mission MINUSCA has announced.

"The town of Bambari has once again been the scene of serious and blind violence causing numerous casualties, including four dead, more than a dozen injured and houses burned down," MINUSCA said in a statement released on Thursday night.

A U.N. panel is calling for targeted sanctions against former Central African Republic president Michel Djotodia, accused of trying to derail the political transition in Bangui, diplomats said Tuesday.

Djotodia rose to power in March 2013 after his Seleka rebel movement overthrew longtime leader Francois Bozize, but he stepped down in January amid chaos in his country.

Turkish lawmakers approved Thursday sending troops on a year-long mission with EU forces in the Central African Republic and Mali as Turkey continues efforts to bolster its presence in the region.

The motion passed easily with support from the ruling party and the main opposition, although the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) voted against it, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Former Muslim rebels who held sway for 10 months in the Central African Republic returned Friday to two camps in the capital after a rowdy protest against plans to return them to distant homes.

The protesters were members of the Seleka rebel alliance that ousted president Francois Bozize in March 2013 and placed in power Michel Djotodia, who was forced to step down in January under international pressure.

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels have launched a string of attacks across central Africa with a "steady increase" in abductions, the United Nations said in a report seen Thursday.

The elusive jungle insurgents, who raid villages and enslave residents, have abducted 432 people so far this year, a "steady increase" from last year and more than double the number in 2012, the report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) read.

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Central African militias of killings, mutilation of bodies and abductions in a fresh wave of violence, calling for more peacekeepers to stop the bloodshed.

Dozens of civilians have been killed and thousands displaced in the latest attacks, the rights group said in a new report, adding that a range of armed militias "continue to enjoy impunity" because international forces are stretched so thin.