UN forced to halve rations in Central African Republic

DAKAR, Senegal – A U.N. humanitarian official warns that aid workers have had to cut rations in half across Central African Republic because of underfunding.

Najat Rochdi, the U.N.’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Central African Republic, said Tuesday that operations have been suspended entirely in some remote areas of the southeast because aid could only be delivered there by air and had become too expensive.

Central African Republic has suffered waves of communal violence since late 2013 and officials have said the violence now approaches the bloodshed seen during the peak of the earlier crisis.

As a result, Rochdi said there are now 600,000 people internally displaced.

A number of non-governmental organizations also supply humanitarian aid, though the violence has forced many to suspend operations in some parts of the country.