CAR displacement reaches unprecedented levels in 2017: UNHCR

GENEVA, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Violence in the Central African Republic (CAR), particularly in the country's northwest, has pushed forced displacement to the highest levels that the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has seen since the start of the crisis in 2013.

UNHCR's spokesperson Adrian Edwards said Tuesday at a UN briefing that data as of the end of December showed that 688,700 people were internally displaced, 60 percent more than just a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of CAR refugees in neighboring countries, at 542,380, is also up, by 12 percent in comparison to last year.

"For a country whose population is estimated at around 4.6 million, these two figures combined represent an astonishing level of suffering and people in need," said Edwards.

The recent surge in violence in the country's northwest has led over 17,000 Central Africans to flee to neighboring Chad since the end of December, some 10 times more than during all of 2017.

"Although their flow has slowed as fighting abates, this is the biggest refugee influx from CAR to Chad since 2014," said Edwards.

UNHCR is identifying host villages away from the border in Chad to relocate the refugees. In total Chad hosts 77,122 refugees from CAR.

The conflict in CAR's northwest has also displaced some 65,000 Central Africans to the city of Paoua, which has seen its population triple.

The newly displaced told UNHCR that armed groups attacked their villages, torched houses, looted food and killed anyone in their way. Enditem