Kidnapped UN Worker in Central African Republic Released

The UN employee, abducted earlier on Tuesday in the Central African Republic by an armed group, has been freed.

MOSCOW, January 20 (Sputnik) — A member of the UN mission who was kidnapped earlier Tuesday in the Central African Republic has been released.

"UN worker, who had been kidnapped this Tuesday in Bangui, has been released," the United Nations Mission for Stabilization of the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) wrote on Twitter.

#BREAKING: UN worker, who had been kidnapped this Tuesday in Bangui, has been released. #CentralAfricanRepublic #CARcrisis

— MINUSCA (@UN_CAR) 20 января 2015

MINUSCA earlier released a statement condemning the incident. Tuesday's abduction happened a day after the kidnapping of a Central African cleric and a French aid worker in Bangui.

The Central African Republic has been unstable since 2013, when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew the country's Christian president Francois Bozize. Anti-Balaka, a predominantly Christian militia, began fighting Seleka and targeting Muslims in revenge attacks.

The UN mission in the country was established by the UN Security Council in April 2014 and took over peacekeeping duties on September 15. The United Nations estimates that more than a thousand people have lost their lives to the conflict and about a million have been forced to flee their homes.