The Central African Republic's (CAR) 3-million children are the world's most deprived, with widespread malnutrition, inadequate healthcare access and instability putting the country at high risk of a humanitarian crisis, Unicef said on Tuesday.
Half the country's children do not have access to health services and almost 40% suffer from chronic malnutrition, the UN children's agency said. Few have access to clean water, sanitation or healthy diets.
With global attention focused on the war in Gaza and other conflicts, the plight of the African nation's children has become “painfully invisible”, Meritxell Relano Arana, Unicef representative in the CAR, told reporters in Geneva.
“The 3-million girls and boys of the Central Africa Republic face the highest registered level of overlapping and interconnected crises and deprivation in the world,” she said.
That means the CAR is now ranked as the country most at-risk for sliding into humanitarian crisis, she added.
Violence in the CAR, one of the world's poorest countries, waned after a peace accord in February 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups, but the situation remains volatile as swathes of territory remain outside government control.
Central African Republic's children are world's most deprived: Unicef
Image: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
The Central African Republic's (CAR) 3-million children are the world's most deprived, with widespread malnutrition, inadequate healthcare access and instability putting the country at high risk of a humanitarian crisis, Unicef said on Tuesday.
Half the country's children do not have access to health services and almost 40% suffer from chronic malnutrition, the UN children's agency said. Few have access to clean water, sanitation or healthy diets.
With global attention focused on the war in Gaza and other conflicts, the plight of the African nation's children has become “painfully invisible”, Meritxell Relano Arana, Unicef representative in the CAR, told reporters in Geneva.
“The 3-million girls and boys of the Central Africa Republic face the highest registered level of overlapping and interconnected crises and deprivation in the world,” she said.
That means the CAR is now ranked as the country most at-risk for sliding into humanitarian crisis, she added.
Violence in the CAR, one of the world's poorest countries, waned after a peace accord in February 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups, but the situation remains volatile as swathes of territory remain outside government control.
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