Money running out for flights to get migrants out of Central African Republic, group says

Men take cover in a toilet as heavy gunfire erupts in the Miskin district of Bangui, Central African Republic, Monday Feb. 3, 2014. In what a French soldier on the scene described as the heaviest exchange of fire he'd seen since early December 2013, Muslim militias engaged Burundi troops who returned fire. A third source of firing remained unidentified. Fighting between Muslim Seleka militias and Christian anti-Balaka factions continues as French and African Union forces struggle to contain the bloodshed. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) (The Associated Press)

prev next

Men take cover as heavy gunfire erupts in the Miskin district of Bangui, Central African Republic, Monday Feb. 3, 2014. In what a French soldier on the scene described as the heaviest exchange of fire he'd seen since early December 2013, Muslim militias engaged Burundi troops who returned fire. A third source of firing remained unidentified. Fighting between Muslim Seleka militias and Christian anti-Balaka factions continues as French and African Union forces struggle to contain the bloodshed. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) (The Associated Press)

Men take cover as heavy gunfire erupts in the Miskin district of Bangui, Central African Republic, Monday Feb. 3, 2014. In what a French soldier on the scene describes as the heaviest exchange of fire he'd seen since early December 2013, Muslim militias engaged Burundi troops who returned fire. A third source of firing remained unidentified. Fighting between Muslim Seleka militias and Christian anti-Balaka factions continues as French and African Union forces struggle to contain the bloodshed. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) (The Associated Press)

DAKAR, Senegal – Humanitarian officials are warning they only have enough money for a few more flights to take migrants from embattled Central African Republic.

Jan de Wilde, the officer in charge of the International Organization for Migration in the country, said Tuesday that flights will be discontinued unless funding improves.

The organization said it has helped nearly 5,000 people escape the country's spiraling violence, repatriating foreigners to Chad, Cameroon, Mali, Sudan, Niger and Senegal.

Central African Republic has been in chaos since a March 2013 coup and the violence that erupted in December has increasingly targeted civilians of Muslim origin.

Many fleeing have lived in the country for years and have few ties in their home countries.

Mobs attacks occur daily on the streets of the capital, Bangui, despite international peacekeepers.