The U.N. refugee agency warned Friday that the violence plaguing the Central African Republic was reminiscent of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica in Bosnia, insisting far more international troops are needed on the ground.

UNHCR civilian protection chief Philippe Leclerc, who has just returned from two months in the Central African Republic, said the situation there "reminded me of... Srebrenica, of the Muslim enclaves in Bosnia-Hercegovina".

French President Francois Hollande arrived in the Central African Republic on Friday, nearly three months into a difficult mission to stop the sectarian bloodshed sweeping the country.

His high-security visit to Bangui caps a week that saw the French parliament extend Operation Sangaris and another 400 extra troops arrive in the deeply unstable former French colony.

President Francois Hollande will visit French troops deployed in the Central African Republic on Friday and meet with the interim president of the troubled former colony, his office said.

Hollande will have talks with Catherine Samba Panza, address some of the soldiers and also meet with religious leaders during a brief stopover in the capital Bangui on his way back from Nigeria, where he is attending a summit with African leaders.

The Central African Republic's interim president on Wednesday called on French and African troops in her country to make full use of their U.N. mandate to sideline rogue elements creating havoc in the troubled nation.

The escalating Christian-Muslim violence in the CAR was "being used by people who are not interested in restoring stability", interim president Catherine Samba Panza told a press conference, a day after French lawmakers extended their country's military operation in the country.

French lawmakers on Tuesday approved an extension of the country's military operation in the Central African Republic as the U.N. warned of a potential new bloodbath in the troubled African state.

Despite misgivings among some that French troops have been put into an uncontrollable situation in the former colony, deputies in the National Assembly voted 428-14 (with 21 abstentions) in favor of authorizing the mission, which was launched in early December, to continue beyond April.

The Red Cross said Tuesday it had collected nine more bodies in Bangui, bringing to 1,240 the number of confirmed deaths from the violence in the Central African capital since December.

Among the corpses collected by Red Cross staff were two Chadian soldiers from the African Union peacekeeping force MISCA and two civilians who were killed on Sunday in clashes with militiamen on Sunday.

Thousands of civilians in conflict-torn Central African Republic are at imminent risk of attack, the U.N. refugee agency warned Tuesday, calling for heightened security and more international troops.

More than 15,000 people in 18 locations in the northwest and southwest of the impoverished African country "are at present surrounded and under threat by armed groups," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters.

There would be a genocide raging in Central African Republic if French troops had not been deployed, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday ahead of a parliamentary vote to extend the military mission.

The issue has divided the French parliament but the vote to extend Operation Sangaris, whose mandate is due to expire in April, is expected to pass in both houses.

The head of France's peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic on Monday denied claims by rights groups of ethnic cleansing, but admitted Muslims are under "intense pressure".

The impoverished country descended into chaos last March after a rebellion overthrew the government, sparking deadly violence between the Christian majority and Muslim minority that has uprooted a million people out of a population of 4.6 million.

Two African peacekeepers were killed in weekend fighting with militiamen in the capital of the strife-torn Central African Republic, where fresh clashes erupted on Monday, a top commander with the international force said.

Two Chadian peacekeepers and two fighters from the mostly Christian anti-balaka militia died in the fighting Sunday, Martin Tumenta, head of military operations with the African-led MISCA force, told AFP.