Violent clashes between rebels and government forces in the Central African Republic (CAR), particularly in the northwestern region which borders Chad, has induced an acute food crisis. 

With a population of five million, the country has been in a civil war since 2013.

According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 600,000 people have been displaced from their homes as a result. 

CAR’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra says the food crisis directly relates to the ongoing conflict in the region: “It’s linked to poverty and insecurity. The conflict prevents residents from growing crops, and it’s difficult to earn an income.”

At a health centre in Paoua, 300 miles north-west of CAR’s capital Bangui, mothers and their children fill up the queues, seeking medical aid and food provisions.

“There’s no food at home,” a 22-year-old mother tells Al Jazeera, as her two-year-old malnourished son cries at the centre.

The United Nations’ food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), hands out pasta sachets at the site, but it is not enough. 

Hunger is named the most common ailment among the town’s 47,000 inhabitants, according to the health centre head, Modeste Loyo Motayo. 

42% of Central Africans struggle to access food daily, according to the WFP, with this figure predicted to rise next year. 

Regional differences are evident, with 61% of inhabitants facing food insecurity in Ouham-Pendé, in the country’s north-west. This is where the fighting is at its worst.