France asks president of CAR to hold elections by end 2014

Relative calm returned to the Central African Republic on Sunday after three days of heavy fighting between Christians and Muslims, with France saying many thousands rather than hundreds would have died had its troops not intervened. Nevertheless, residents of the capital Bangui reporte sporadic gunfire from some neighbourhoods and a human rights campaigner said members of Seleka - a mainly Muslim rebel group that seized power in March and has been fighting Christian militias - were still operating in the city. The morgue at Bangui's Hopital Communautaire was full, a Reuters correspondent saw, with bodies piled up there and in the hospital corridors. France is deploying 1,600 troops to its former colony after the U.N. Security Council authorised it on Thursday to use force to help African peacekeepers struggling to restore order. The African Union force is also due to be increased to 6,000 from 3,500. Despite a government order for the gunmen to return to their barracks, another Reuters reporter saw soldiers in camouflage fatigues driving around in pickup trucks near the presidential palace and in clear view of French patrols. Following the outbreak of violence, France wants elections brought forward to next year, putting an end to the interim period originally scheduled to run into 2015.