BANGUI, Central African Republic, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The United Nations says it has received only 6 percent of the $247 million it requested to help people in the violence-torn Central African Republic.
Hundreds of thousands of people displaced in a conflict between government forces and rebel groups in the republic are in need of water, medical care and shelter, a U.N. report said.
"We cannot deliver in any way, shape or form to meet the needs of this population without the mobilization of the resources that we require," said John Ging, director of the Operational Division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Some donors have told the United Nations they do not have the resources to meet all the humanitarian appeals across the world, which now total more than $12.9 billion.
Ging stressed that the problem in the Central African Republic has been on the bottom of the global priority list for too long.
"We are only appealing for money for the very basics, to feed people, to provide basic medical care, clean water, the basic for shelter and so on," he said. "That is what the $247 million is to deliver. Yet we have only $15.5 million so far."
The effort to raise the funds began last month.
