UN Says Has Only 9% of Funds Needed for Central African Republic

(Bloomberg) -- The United Nations has only 9 percent of the $515.6 million it appealed for in January to assist 1.9 million people in the Central African Republic, according to its Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“The current funding level is too low to enable the effective provision of humanitarian assistance,” UNOCHA said in an emailed statement on Monday. “Furthermore, it does not cover emergency preparedness considering the upsurge of violence countrywide.”

In March, there were almost 687,400 internally displaced people, more than the number registered at the peak of the nation’s humanitarian crisis in August 2014, the agency said. More than 1.2 million, or one in four, have been forced to flee their homes, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Central African Republic Najat Rochdi said. The violence will push more into seeking refuge in remote places inaccessible to aid workers, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Kingdon at ckingdon@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Paul Richardson

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