The death toll from clashes sparked by a referendum in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui rose to five yesterday as the Red Cross reported another three lives were lost in the weekend unrest.

The clashes involving rocket launchers and machine guns disrupted the polling Sunday in the Muslim-majority PK-5 district of Bangui. U.N. peacekeepers and French soldiers were massed in the flashpoint district yesterday to allow its voters to complete polling in the referendum aimed at ending years of sectarian strife. Violence marred polling elsewhere in the former French colony, notably in the north and east, according to an unnamed source in the U.N. peacekeeping force MINUSCA sent in to quell fighting that has forced 10 percent of the population to flee their homes. Another 20 people were wounded, several seriously, in Sunday's fighting, the Red Cross said.

The vote is seen as a test run for presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place Dec. 27 to end more than two years of conflict between the Muslim and Christian militias. If the proposed constitution is adopted, it would usher in the sixth republic since independence from France in 1960 and mark the 13th political regime in a country notorious for its chronic instability.

Despite the presence of some 8,000 U.N. and 2,000 French peacekeepers in CAR, the ongoing chaos has led to the widespread killing of Muslims. Those who have survived have been placed in camps where there is no way out. After the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power early in 2013, CAR has been in a state of crisis. Since then, sectarian violence has been escalating in central and eastern parts of the country, as the anti-Balaka, Christian militia forces started to launch attacks against the Seleka.