Thousands displaced by fighting in Central African Republic

About 150,000 people have had to flee their homes in north-west Central African Republic because of fighting in the region, a UN aid group said today.

“The picture is very confused. There seem to be all manner of different clashes, and certainly a fear of bandits,” said Marcus Prior, regional spokesman for the United Nation’s World Food Programme.

The violence around the town of Paoua did not appear to be connected to an insurrection in the north-east, where rebels have recently battled government forces and French troops.

Still, “there has been significant insecurity and clashes in the North-West over a significant period,” Prior said, saying the fighting has ebbed and flowed over a number of months. He said the situation appeared to have worsened in mid-November, when the army told the World Food Programme’s partner organisations to suspend emergency food distribution in the region because of escalating clashes.

Villages have been burned down in at least two areas outside of Paoua, Prior said. WFP said about 150,000 people were believed to be living in the bush and scavenging for food, many unable to return to their villages for more than a year.

Central African Republic’s densely populated north-west region is an agricultural hub for the country. Since the fighting started, prices for staple foods like manioc have risen sharply, WFP said.

Central African Republic, with a population of 3.6 million, has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since it gained independence from France in 1960.

The country borders a number of conflict wracked countries, with Sudan’s Darfur region and Chad to the north, and Congo to the south. Western observers have started to express concern that neighbouring fighting may be spilling over its borders.

Nearly 50,000 people have been pushed out of north-west Central African Republic across the northern border to refugee camps in southern Chad in the past four years because of conflict, WFP said.

The government has regularly characterised fighting in the region as banditry. Government officials were not immediately available for comment on any recent clashes in the North-West.

The country’s president, Francois Bozize, took power in 2003, after his rebels attacked the capital and ousted President Ange-Felix Patasse, who now lives in exile in Togo. Bozize won election in May 2005.