Recent fighting between armed groups and government forces in the Central African Republic has displaced more than 180,000 people. The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, spoke today of a „catastrophic humanitarian crisis“.
According to the Red Cross, one in four of the approximately five million inhabitants had either been internally displaced in their own country or fled to a neighboring country before the new fighting.
Worry about malnutrition
„We are concerned that malnutrition is getting even worse because many families can no longer buy enough food or what they can buy is not nutritious enough,“ said Maurer.
Last year, the ICRC cared for 720 victims of sexual violence and held 1,400 psychological consultations in a single city, Kaga-Bandoro in the north-east of the country. „These numbers indicate a horrific level of violence, but they do not reflect the extent of the need,“ said Maurer.
The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world. In the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), it ranks next to last of 189 places – just ahead of Niger.
