UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Children in the Central African Republic (CAR) are paying a heavy price for the troubles faced by the country, and their plight could worsen without urgent international support, said a senior official with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
"Children in CAR are in the eye of a storm," the deputy executive director of UNICEF, Hilde Johnson, had said during a visit to the country last week, UN officials said here on Wednesday.
"The problems they are facing today will only be exacerbated by the triple threat of instability, the dwindling State budget and decline in donor spending," she added.
CAR is one of the most impoverished countries in the world and, according to UN humanitarian officials, the number of people affected directly or indirectly by conflict is estimated to be more than 1 million -- out of a population of 4 million.
It also has some of the worst child welfare indicators in the world, according to UNICEF, which says that about one in six children die before reaching the age of five.
In addition, only 38 percent of girls and 53 percent of boys of official primary school age are enrolled in school, and many drop out before finishing the last primary grade.
The country's health care system is also one of the weakest in the world and basic services are almost nonexistent, UNICEF said in a news release.
The global economic crisis, coupled with a 39-percent funding gap in humanitarian aid, is only making the situation worse.
"CAR has been a donor orphan for a while," said Johnson, "but at this juncture, the risk of further crisis is too significant to ignore. The limited resources available in this country are in no way commensurate with the enormous needs and dismal indicators."
The deputy executive director, who also visited neighboring Chad during her trip, stressed the need for financial, political and diplomatic support by international partners to ensure the rights of Central African children and to enhance their protection.
