GENEVA
UNHCR is sending additional aid, protection and other teams to CAR amid reports of displacement of over two hundred thousand people in last two weeks alone, says UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards at the UN Office at Geneva on Tuesday.
"Staff have begun arriving this week and more are on their way," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in a press conference in the UN Office at Geneva on Tuesday.
Communal fighting has continued since March 2013 when the CAR President Francois Bozize was ousted.
Armed gangs, mainly former Seleka rebels, who were responsibile for overthrowing Bozize now control most of the country. Local residents exasperated by the abuses committed by members of the former rebel Seleka group have formed anti-balaka ("anti-machete" in the local Sango language) groups.
"In Bangau alone, we now believe that some 210,000 people have been displaced just in the last two weeks," Edwards said.
He continued to say that in Bassangoa which is a largely Muslim populated area, some 5,600 people were displaced since renewed fighting started between Seleka fighters and the armed anti-Balaka groups almost a fortnight ago.
UNHCR noted that over 710 thousand people have been uprooted within CAR since the current crisis began a year ago, while over 75,000 others have fled into exile.
"In total, the WFP has assisted 97,549 people with 414 metric tons of food in Bangui since the beginning of the crisis and in total, 35,000 people have been assisted this year in Bossangoa", according to Geneva Spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs.
In 2013, WFP has provided food assistance to more than 500 thousand people in CAR.
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