The United Nations (UN) says a recent wave of violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has claimed the lives of nearly 40 people, and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The UN said on Tuesday that at least 36 people had been killed and some 30,000 had fled their homes since Saturday.

“We fear that the violence that we’re seeing in Bangui (the capital of the CAR) is a return to the dark days of late 2013 and 2014, when thousands were killed and tens of thousands had to flee their homes,” UN Refugee Agency spokesman Leo Dobbs said.

Local reports place the death toll at 42.

Meanwhile, some 500 prisoners have escaped from a detention center in the capital, Bangui.

The CAR has been witnessing violence since a coup ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013.

The coup pushed the country into an ethnic conflict between the Christian and Muslim populations. The largely Christian “anti-balaka” militias were formed to avenge what they called atrocities by the members of the Seleka group, who had been behind the coup, resulting in waves of killing, rape, and pillaging ever since.

The UN Security Council authorized the deployment of the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) soldiers over concerns related to the security, humanitarian, human rights, and political crisis in the CAR, with the declared objective of protecting civilians.