The international community must help Central Africans displaced by conflict to plant enough food for the next planting season which begins in March, VoiceOfAmerica reports.

The Food and Agriculture Organization says more than a million people in this country of about 4.5 million have no reliable food supply.

Even after Seleka rebel leader Michel Djotodia became president in March, Human Rights Watch reports that rebels continued to pillage many areas, according to VoiceOfAmerica.

In many areas of the CAR, seed stocks, tools, livestock, and virtually everything else was stolen by bandits and entire villages burned to the ground in a complete breakdown of law and order in 2013.

Farmers in the Central African Republic need seeds and tools before the next planting
season if they are to avoid a nationwide food crisis, two senior U.N. officials told reporters this week in Bangui.

“The most urgent needs are exactly what you would expect – assistance with the seeds and tools for helping themselves to recover their livelihoods,” said John Ging, operations director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “We’ve got to focus on helping people to help themselves.”

Ging spoke at a news conference along with Dominique Burgeon, emergencies director for the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The U.N. estimates that 886,000 people have been displaced by conflict within CAR, most of them since September. Not enough land was planted because of the turmoil in the country throughout 2013, U.N. reports.

Food stocks are very low and there is a shortage of seeds.

Ging called for more aid organizations to come to the Central African Republic quickly to lend their expertise and experience.

“We need more of the large international non-governmental organizations to come here – urgently” he said. “If you go to any of the countries where we have very large humanitarian operations, you will see all of the big international non-governmental organizations present in those countries. Many of those large international
organizations are not present in this country.”

Ging also appealed for more funding to meet CAR’s needs. So far, he said, $30 million has been received in response to an appeal for $247 million, and those needs are increasing.