GENEVA — The number of people displaced by fighting between Muslim and Christian militias and vigilantes in the Central African Republic has more than doubled in the past month, and increasing violence is making it harder to deliver humanitarian relief, the United Nations warned Friday.
More than 935,000 people have been driven from their homes in the clashes between Christian militias and the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group that overthrew President François Bozizé in March, up from around 400,000 at the start of December, said Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency. In the past month, relief supplies have reached about 23,000 people, he said.
A month after France dispatched additional troops to the Central African Republic to join African peacekeepers trying to restore stability, the violence is getting worse, “making the delivery of humanitarian relief ever more difficult,” Baloch said.
“Targeted attacks against civilians, looting, and the presence of armed elements at some displacement sites have severely limited humanitarian access to those in need of urgent assistance,” Baloch said. “We have heard about a lot of revenge attacks,” including attacks inside health clinics.
In Bangui, the capital, where the year began with gunbattles between the factions, around 512,000 people — more than half the population — have fled from their homes and more than 100,000 have sought shelter and protection around the airport, where aid agencies are delivering emergency relief supplies.
The presence of a French army contingent providing security at Bangui airport has not helped relief agencies trying to distribute humanitarian aid, a task that had become “more challenging,” Baloch said.
In addition, the World Health Organization reported Friday an outbreak of measles in Bangui as well as in the north of the country and said it was working with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders to start a crash vaccination program.