UN: The United Nations has not received a single donation in response to a two-month-old appeal for funds to help stave off starvation in the Central African Republic.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking US $6.1 million to help feed 150,000 displaced people in the war-torn country where aid workers say many are surviving off seeds.
Yesterday, the WFP disclosed the results of the appeal. "We haven't received a penny . . . It is a minimal amount compared to funds needed for other crises," said spokeswoman, Ms Christiane Berthiaume.
"This can be called the world's most silent crisis, a drama that is being played out amid total indifference, a civil war tearing apart a country without anyone talking about it."
The WFP relaunched the appeal yesterday, saying it needed the money to purchase 8.2 million tonnes of food for the former French colony, which has suffered a series of uprisings during the past two years.
In the latest fighting, last October, Congolese guerrillas crossed the border to help President Ange-Felix Patasse beat back rebels based in neighbouring Chad.
Parts of the land-locked, diamond-rich nation of 3.5 million are still in the hands of rebels loyal to former army chief Francois Bozize, who fled to Chad.
Since October, aid workers have not been able to reach 1.2 million people in the north, where food has run out. Many people have begun to eat seeds instead of planting them and others have had their supplies stolen by rebels.
WFP aid workers who reached Sibut and Damara, 200 km north of the capital Bangui in February, found children dying of malnutrition and diseases including malaria. The organisation says two out of every three Central Africans live on less than a dollar a day and 14.5 per cent of the population is infected with HIV.
In 1960, the then French colony of Ubangi-Shari gained independence as the Central African Republic but then embarked upon three tumultuous decades of misrule, mostly by military governments.
The most notorious was that headed by Col Jean-Bedel Bokassa who seized power in 1966. In 1972, Col Bokassa declared himself president for life and changed the country's name to the Central African Empire.
He was deposed in 1979 and eventually tried for torture, murder, and cannibalism. He was convicted of murdering several political opponents. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but he was freed in 1993.