Central African Republic is facing a humanitarian crisis with 2.4 million people in need of assistance and the U.N.’s $534 million appeal only 36% funded, a U.N. official said Wednesday.

Mohamed Ag Ayoya, deputy special representative for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, told a news conference that 10 years of conflict have displaced half a million people within the country while 700,000 have fled to neighboring countries. Mineral-rich but impoverished CAR has a population of 6 million.

But Ayoya said CAR has also opened its doors to 38,000 returnees and asylum-seekers from Chad, and more recently to 18,000 returnees and asylum seekers from another neighbor, Sudan, where a conflict between rival generals and their supporters is now in its fifth month.

In the first six months of 2023, there have been an “extremely high” number of cases of gender-based violence – 11,000 – and the number is probably higher because these cases aren’t always reported, he said.

CAR has faced intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office. Mostly Christian militias later fought back, also targeting civilians in the streets. The United Nations estimates the fighting has killed thousands.

Ayoya said security in the country has improved and humanitarian workers have been able to access areas that they couldn’t for the past 10 years. He said there are armed groups and security issues around CAR’s borders with Sudan, Chad and South Sudan and minefields and explosives in the west.

He said the widespread presence of the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as MINUSCA, and its mandate that includes protecting humanitarian convoys “has been very, very helpful.”

He said U.N. humanitarian appeals for the country in 2021 and 2022 were around 95% funded – and the current appeal’s funding of just 36% at this time of year is very worrying. The U.N. announced Tuesday it was giving CAR $6.5 million from its emergency relief fund