U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has cited armed conflict in Syria and the Central African Republic as the two most serious crises facing United Nations agencies around the world today.

At a news conference Monday in New York, Ban demanded a cease-fire in Syria before peace talks between the government and opposition begin in Geneva next month.

The U.N. chief said in 2013 “the Syrian conflict deteriorated beyond all imagination” and the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon alone may soon reach one million.

Ban also told reporters he is “gravely concerned about the imminent danger of mass atrocities” in the Central African Republic.

France has deployed 1,600 troops to the C.A.R. as part of a U.N.-authorized mission to stabilize the landlocked country, which has been ravaged by a cycle of revenge killings between Muslims and Christians.

In Geneva, the United Nations launched an appeal to donors for another $6.5 billion to help support the nearly nine million Syrians uprooted by the conflict, the largest ever appeal for a single crisis.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says the Syrian refugee disaster is the largest since the Rwanda genocide and “probably the most dangerous for global peace and security since the Second World War.”

Source: VOA