Families displaced from the conflict watch as a convoy of Moroccan peacekeepers from the United Nations Integrated Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) passes by on the outskirts of Bangassou on February 3. Photo: VCG

 Rebels killed six civilians and wounded several others Saturday in an attack on a village in the northeast of the volatile Central African Republic, the UN peacekeeping mission said.

"This morning at dawn elements from the 3R [Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation]launched a large-scale attack against C.African army positions in the village of Mann," spokesman for the UN's 12,000-strong MINUSCA mission said. 

The village is about 550 kilometers from the capital Bangui, Lieutenant Colonel Abdoulaziz Fall told AFP. 

"The situation is under control and patrols are under way," he said.

The 3R, a rebel group composed of members from the Funali ethnic group, is one of several such outfits flourishing in the violence-wracked country.  

CAR is the second least-developed country in the world according to the UN and is still suffering from the aftermath of a brutal civil conflict that erupted in 2013. It has been wracked by coups since its 1960 independence from France.

President Faustin Archange Touadera was reelected in December on a turnout of fewer than one in three voters.

The ballot was hampered by armed groups - including the 3R - that at the time controlled around two-thirds of the country, and rebels mounted an offensive in the runup to polling day. 

Since then, the army, backed by UN peacekeepers, Rwandan special forces and Russian paramilitaries, has wrested much of the territory from rebel control.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council extended an arms embargo on the country for 12 months as members voiced alarm at the "deteriorating" situation.