The situation in the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Bangui, is “apocalyptic”, as rebels surround the city, said a former prime minister.
Martin Ziguélé said there was daily fighting across the country and that he could not leave Bangui without an armed escort.
The UN says more than 200,000 people have fled their homes since the conflict began last month.
The rebel forces now control two-thirds of the country.
CAR is one of the poorest and most unstable countries in Africa, although it is rich in resources like diamonds and uranium. The UN estimates that about half of the population depends on humanitarian aid.
The rebel forces that now surround Bangui contest the validity of President Faustin Archange Touadéra’s reelection in December and want to see him ousted.
The city is being defended by government forces supported by UN, Russian and Rwandan troops. The state of emergency was declared earlier this month.
Ziguélé, who came in third in the poll, said everyone was focused on keeping the main supply route between Bangui and eastern Cameroon open.
“I cannot leave Bangui … without a heavily armed army escort,” he told the Reuters news agency by telephone.
“Imagine, then, the population. Add the curfew and the state of emergency – it’s really an apocalyptic situation, ”he added.
Ziguélé welcomed the UN request for more peacekeeping troops, but said that negotiations between all parties are urgently needed.
“A military increase is not the only solution to address the security, humanitarian and economic crisis that threatens to put one of the least developed countries in the world in a complete coma,” he said.
At least 12,000 peacekeepers are already on the ground in CAR.
The UN Refugee Council (UNHCR) said that about 92,000 refugees had fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and more than 13,000 crossed to Cameroon, Chad and the Republic of Congo. He said that the others were displaced within the CAR.
Speaking in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told reporters that the rebel attacks have hampered humanitarian access to Bangui and that many people now face “dire conditions”.
The disease is growing and some of the displaced are so desperate that they are exchanging sex for food, added spokesman Boris Cheshirkov.
Meanwhile, a regional body in 12 member states called for a ceasefire and urged armed groups to “break free from the siege of Bangui”.
The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region warned that the crisis poses a serious threat to neighboring countries.