UN official asks for more aid resources for Central African Republic

By:Xinhua
update:November 10,2017

UNITED NATIONS, Nov.10,2017-- A UN official on Thursday asked for more resources for war-torn Central African Republic (CAR) as a humanitarian plan is only partially funded.

The aid community has very limited capacities and is struggling to provide basic services, Najat Rochdi, deputy special representative for the UN mission in the CAR and UN Resident Coordinator in the country, told reporters.

The nearly 500-million-U.S. dollar Humanitarian Response Plan for 2017 for the country is only about 39 percent funded, she said.

"This is not the time to give up on the people of CAR," Rochdi said, noting unprecedented levels of hunger in the country. In addition to food shortages, the country also suffers from the lack of medicines and access to health care, she said.

The security situation continued to deteriorate since May 2017, relapsing into violence that could lead to peak levels not seen since 2014, some along ethnic lines, said Rochdi.

She warned that the high number of people displaced from their homes renders reconciliation between the predominantly Muslim and the predominantly Catholic communities, as well as rebuilding services and homes destroyed in the fighting, extremely difficult.

One out of four people in the CAR is either displaced or living as a refugee in another country, she noted.

The CAR has been in civil war since 2012, which is being fought along religious and ethnic lines.