U.N. Starts Food Airlift to Restive Central Africa

The U.N. food agency on Wednesday launched one of its largest-ever emergency food airlifts, flying in supplies to the Central African Republic.

The World Food Program's first cargo aircraft, loaded with 80 tons of rice, landed in the capital Bangui in the early afternoon, WFP spokesman Alexis Masciarelli told AFP.

He said there will be 24 daily supply drops to the city, where 1.3 million people -- more than a quarter of the country's population -- is in need of food assistance.

"This is a rather exceptional operation, our biggest emergency air operation in a long time, bigger than for Syria and the Philippines," Masciarelli said.

But he added that the operation "would not completely solve the problem".

The humanitarian situation in the CAR has deteriorated since a coup in March 2013 led by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels plunged the country into chaos and led to an outbreak of sectarian attacks between the Muslim ex-rebels and vigilantes from mostly Christian areas.