More than one million children need urgent aid in the conflict-torn Central African Republic: UN

DAKAR

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More than a million children in the Central African Republic are in urgent need of humanitarian aid while almost half of those under five are malnourished, the United Nations said on Nov. 27. 

Some two million children have been affected by violence which first broke out in December 2012, and 1.2 million now need urgent aid, said the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF. 

“The violence that has plagued this country has had a devastating impact on the lives of children,” said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF representative in the Central African Republic, Thomson Reuters Foundation reported.

The majority Christian nation plunged into tumult when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels briefly seized power in a 2013 coup.

Sectarian violence has plagued the country since and fresh fighting broke out in Bangui two months ago, the worst violence in the capital this year, when the murder of a Muslim man triggered reprisal attacks on a largely Christian neighborhood.

“The humanitarian needs are overwhelming, to meet them we need access and we need greater international support,” Fall said. 

The conflict has uprooted 400,000 people within the country and forced half a million to seek refuge in neighboring countries, while recent insecurity and attacks on convoys have hindered aid deliveries and lifesaving activities, UNICEF said.

UNICEF has received $37 million of the $70.9 million it needs to provide urgent lifesaving interventions for the most vulnerable children in the Central African Republic this year.