The rebels used to be linked with Seleka, an armed Muslim group who overthrew Central African Republic’s president.

A governor says fighters from Central African Republic have kidnapped 16 people from a town on the Cameroonian border, including a mayor and clergy.

On Thursday night, 30 heavily armed fighters seized a bus just miles from the border in Babio. The bus was carrying people returning from a burial, said Gov. Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua. The assailants then drove the bus back into Central African Republic.

Ivaha Diboua said no one had claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but it is suspected they have been carried out by rebels from the Democratic Front of the Central African People. Their leader is in jail in Cameroon and fighters have previously kidnapped several Cameroonians and a Polish priest last year to secure his release from prison.

The rebels were once linked with Seleka, a coalition of mostly Muslim armed groups who overthrew Central African Republic’s president in 2013. Extensive human rights abuses committed by Seleka gave rise to Christian militias, unleashing sectarian violence which drove nearly 1 million people from their homes. A mix of U.N. peacekeepers, French forces and a European Union military operation has tried to calm the violence.