538,000 people have fled the Central African Republic (CAR) due to violence, with more than 600,000 internally displaced, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.
The agency estimates that 2.4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the country where fighting has heightened since July 2017.
Thousands of people are reported to have sought shelter in hospital grounds as the fighting continues t to rage on.
The fighting between ex-Seleka and Anti-balaka factions in the Batangafo area, north of the Central African Republic, has forced tens of thousands of people to abandon the temporary shelters where they had been seeking refuge since the crisis in 2013-2014.
With a population of 4.5 million people, the 2.4 million in need of aid makes up for more than half the citizens.
The violence represents a new escalation in a conflict that began in 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters seized power and ousted then-president Francois Bozize, prompting reprisal killings from Christian anti-Balaka militias.
