Some 170,000 people in CAR newly displaced due to fighting

A United Nations-led humanitarian mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) found that 170,000 people had been newly displaced because of recent fighting in the country, a spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday. Jens Laerke told reporters that a mission to the north-west of CAR on Sept. 19 to 21, the first since March, found that recent fighting between former Seleka rebels and various armed groups in CAR uprooted many people and instilled fear and mistrust among the population. He said that the funding situation for the humanitarian response in CAR was bleak. The humanitarian appeal covering 2013, asking for 195 million U.S. dollars, is only 39 percent funded three-quarters into the year, he said. "Additional funding through the appeal is urgently needed," he said. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) teams were providing emergency assistance to around 5,500 newly displaced families in the northwest CAR, said the agency's spokesperson Marixie Mercado Tuesday. She said that a nationwide measles vaccination campaign with the goal of reaching all districts was launched Monday. It will cover some 550,000 children between 6 and 59 months old in the country.