Violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes in recent weeks to escape killings and pillaging by militias, the United Nations said Tuesday. Roughly 30,000 people have left their homes and found refuge within CAR since the beginning of 2015, while more than 20,000 others have flooded into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since December, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said. "There is just total lawlessness, and the civilian population is being caught in the middle," UNHCR spokesperson Karin de Gruijl told reporters in Geneva. According to the agency, more than 19,000 refugees have moved across the border to DR Congo from CAR's Kouango district since December.
