Two and a half million people in the Central African Republic, half
the population, have too little to eat because of conflict and
insecurity, and the number has doubled in the past year, the United
Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.
The former French colony, a majority Christian nation, descended into
turmoil in early 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power,
provoking reprisals by Christian militia fighters.
Almost half a million people fled their homes and remain displaced
within the country, while more than 450,000 have fled to neighboring
countries, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"Three years of crisis have taken a huge toll on the people of the
CAR," WFP deputy country director Guy Adoua said in a statement.
"Families have been forced so often to sell what they own, pull their
kids out of school, even resort to begging, that they have reached the
end of their rope. This is not the usual run-of-the-mill emergency.
People are left with nothing."
The 2014-2015 harvest was poor and food prices remained high because
it was too dangerous for farmers to tend their fields, he WFP said.
One in six Central Africans are struggling with extreme food
insecurity, meaning having to sell their possessions just to get by, and
more than one in three do not know where their next meal is coming
from, the WFP said.
"WFP is extremely concerned by this alarming level of hunger," Adoua
said. "People not only lack enough food but are also forced to consume
low-cost, low-nutrient food that does not meet their nutritional needs."
WFP said it was providing food and nutritional support through food
distributions, cash transfers, school meals and other activities and in
December it provided food for nearly 400,000 people.
The agency said its operations were only 45 percent funded and it
needed $41 million to meet urgent needs through to the end of June in
Central African Republic and those of its neighbors hosting Central
African refugees.
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