UNICEF urges actions to prevent CAR human catastrophe

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief has called on the international community to take all possible actions to prevent “a human catastrophe” in the Central African Republic.

Anthony Lake said on Tuesday that Muslims facing “outrageous attacks” have been forced to flee to the north and east of the country, “which is tragic for them and dangerous for the future of their country.”

The head of the UN children’s agency also said that children “are under assault and being killed in brutal, senseless communal violence, and there is an almost total absence of protection” for them.

Lake’s appeal came after the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced that there are only food supplies for a week available in the capital, Bangui.

WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said that the organization will begin flying food supplies from Cameroon to the CAR, as the crisis-hit country was very close to a “food security crisis.”

Byrs added that up to 100 tons of food would be carried to the CAR by a jumbo jet, which would make a round-trip daily, with the aim of flying in 2,000 tons of mostly rice by the end of the month.

The inter-communal violence began last December after Christian militias attacked the mostly Muslim Seleka group, which toppled the previous government in March 2013.

France has dispatched some 1,600 troops to its former colony after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and Paris the go-ahead to send troops to the country.

The sectarian violence reportedly killed over 1,000 people in January, and forced about one million people to flee homes.