“It is hard to see how things could get any worse, but we are facing an even deepening crisis if we do not act fast. Hundreds of thousands of children have already had to flee their homes and have not been spared in the violence,” said Robert Lankenau, Save the Children’s Country Director in the Central African Republic.

To the west, a worsening food security situation in Northern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon and Senegal means that some 20 million people are expected to need humanitarian assistance across the Sahel region of West Africa. That is a dramatic increase from the 11.3 million that needed assistance in 2013. The UN has developed its first-ever three year plan for the region in order to encourage more sustained solutions to the cyclical problem of hunger.