REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- Food stocks are running low in the Central African Republic (CAR), a UN spokesman said on Tuesday, adding that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is to start airlifting food aid into the country due to insecurity on roads.

In Bangui, the capital of CAR, the WFP's emergency food stocks are running very low "with supplies for just one week available," Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for UN secretary-general, told reporters here at a daily briefing.

As road transport is becoming unreliable due to insecurity, " WFP is now preparing to start airlifting food from Douala in Cameroon -- although the cost of transporting food by air is five times more expensive than transportation by road," said Nesirky.

The plan is to have 2,000 metric tons of food -- mostly rice -- transported to Bangui over the course of the month from Douala, the largest city of Cameroon.

"A plane would fly a daily rotation to Bangui with the capacity to transport up to 100 metric tons every time," Nesirky said.

The spokesperson said that the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA) has sent another armed escort to the border between CAR and Cameroon, which was expected to reach the border by Tuesday.

"There are 43 trucks carrying WFP food blocked at the border because of insecurity," he said.

Meanwhile, Nesirky said the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partners are setting up temporary classrooms for over 20,000 displaced children to enable them to return to school.

He also quoted the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as saying that the humanitarian appeal for CAR is still "underfunded."

Donors have pledged just 60 million U.S. dollars, or 11 percent of the 551 million U.S. dollars asked for, Nesirky added.

CAR ranks among the world's poorest countries and has been embroiled in a decade-long armed conflict.

The surge of violence in December 2013 exacerbated its situation and today half of the 4.6-million-strong population is in need of immediate aid. Almost a million people have been internally displaced, half of them in the capital Bangui alone.

More than 245,000 Central Africans have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

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