Despite an abundance of diamonds and timber, landlocked Central African Republic is one of the poorest states in Africa.

• Humanitarian emergency in northwest and northeast
• Hundreds of thousands driven from their homes
• Close ties with neighbouring Chad and Sudan

The government has little control outside the capital. It is constantly battling rebels, after a decade of instability and a history of frequent coups and mutinies.

The north suffers the worst violence, which has driven almost 300,000 people from their homes since 2006, including almost 100,000 who have fled across the border into Chad and Cameroon. The country's politics are intimately linked with its neighbours, especially Chad and Sudan, raising fears of an escalating regional conflict.

Rebel groups and mercenaries raid villages for food and livestock, sometimes raping and killing. Villagers also live in fear of "zaraguinas", marauding criminal gangs who kidnap children for ransom and thrive on the lawlessness accompanying the political conflict.

War destruction and low wages have left the education system and health services in tatters, and the country's humanitarian statistics are shockingly bad. Its life expectancy, child mortality and HIV rates are among the worst in the world. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has called this "the most neglected crisis in the world".

Population	4.3 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Population Division 2006)
Life expectancy (2005)	43.7 years (UNDP - Human Development Report 2007/2008)
Internally displaced	197,000 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2008)
Percentage HIV+ (adults aged 15-49)	10.7 percent (UNAIDS, 2006)
Refugees in neighbouring countries	45,000 in Cameroon, 50,000 in Chad and 3,000 in Sudan (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2008)
Gross national income per person (2006)	$350 (World Bank, 2008)
Child mortality - deaths before the age of five	193 per 1,000 live births UNICEF - State of the World's Children 2007