BANGUI: Three more UN peacekeepers have been found dead after an attack on a convoy in the Central African Republic, UN officials said on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to four.

The UN`s MINUSCA mission, which had earlier announced the death of one peacekeeper, said it was `deeply saddened toconfirm that three of the four peacekeepers that were missing in action since yesterday`s attack have been found dead.

The fourth peacekeeper remains missing after the attack on Monday evening.

Eight attackers were killed in the crossEre, MINUSCA added, referring to anti-BalakaChristian militias whose confrontation with proMuslim rebels plunged the country into a three-year civil war in 2013.

The convoy was attacked near Yogofongo village, more than 470 kilometres east of the capital Bangui, close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, a MINUSCA statement said.`One Cambodian peacekeeper was killed and eight peacekeepers were injured, including one Cambodian and seven Moroccans,` it said, before the bodies of the three others were discovered.

`The perpetrators of the attack fied into the bush.` Killing a UN peacekeeper is consid-ered a war crime, MINUSCA spokesman Herve Verhoosel said, saying the convoy comprised police and UN military staff.

The UN sent a helicopter and soldiers to secure the areaand searchforthe missing, while the wounded were evacuated to Bangui, the statement added.-AFP