More than 200,000 people have fled the Central African Republic (CAR) since the violence erupted during an election result in December, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, with almost half entering the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The CAR army, backed by UN, Russian and Rwandan troops, struggled against rebels to overturn a December 27 vote in which President Faustin-Archange Touadera is the winner.
“Refugees told the UNHCR that they fled in panic when they heard gunshots and left their belongings behind,” spokesman Boris Cheshirkov told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
The nation of nearly five million people – larger than France, Belgium and Luxembourg combined – and rich in diamonds, wood and gold, has struggled to find stability since a rebellion in 2013 ousted former President Francois Bozize.
The current fighting between a coalition of militias on the one hand and the national army and its supporters on the other, was fueled by a decision by the constitutional court to block Bozize’s candidacy in the December 27 presidential election.
Former Prime Minister Martin Ziguele, who came third in the December 27 election, said on Friday that fighting was taking place across the country every day, preventing movement between towns and forcing more people to flee.
“I can not leave Bangui and go 90 km (60 miles) without a heavily armed army escort. Imagine the population. Add the evening bell and the state of emergency, it is really an apocalyptic situation,” Ziguele told Reuters by telephone. said.
In a statement on Friday, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a regional body of 12 member states, called for a ceasefire and called on armed groups to “switch off the Bangui area” and people and to move goods freely.
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The body will also ask the United Nations Security Council to lift an arms embargo on CAR that has restricted the flow of weapons to the military since 2013.
About 92,000 refugees reached the DRC and more than 13,000 migrated to Cameroon, Chad and the Republic of the Congo – the rest were relocated to the Central African Republic, the UNHCR said.
Continuous attacks have hampered humanitarian access, the highway used to bring supplies has been forced into the country, and many are now under “appalling conditions,” Cheshirkov, UNHCR said.
Some displaced people are so desperate that in exchange for food they agreed to have sex, he added. While malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhea are common.