Hundreds of thousands of villagers face a humanitarian emergency, forced out of their homes by armed groups - rebels who want to overthrow the government and bandits who thrive on the lawlessness of the political crisis.

Despite a wealth of diamonds and timber, landlocked Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world, and notoriously unstable.

It has a history of attempted coups and mutinies. The government has little control beyond the capital Bangui, and security is so bad that many embassies and international agencies are based in neighbouring Cameroon.

The north, near the borders with Chad and Sudan, suffers the worst violence, and attacks by various armed groups have forced tens of thousands of people to flee to neighbouring countries.

Many villages have been razed to the ground, with their surviving inhabitants scattering into the bush for a few hours, days or even months in fear of armed men who raid their homes for food and livestock.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is looking into accusations of war crimes during 2002-2003 violence which wrecked the country in the run-up to the president seizing power in a coup, but human rights abuses are not a thing of the past, and activists continue to sound the alarm.

Villagers in Central African Republic - the northwest and northeast of the country in particular - are at the mercy of a range of armed groups.

They are caught up in a conflict between the government and rebels trying to overthrow it, and are vulnerable to attack by both.

Government troops have come under heavy criticism from rights organisations and aid agencies for brutal attacks on villages - burning down homes, beating men and raping women. Their record seems to have improved since the president reined in his forces in 2007 in response to international pressure, but atrocities continue.

Rural inhabitants also live in fear of "zaraguinas" - marauding gangs who specialise in kidnapping babies and children for ransom. Anyone in a position of authority and perceived wealth risks being a kidnap target too, from chiefs and pastors to teachers and health workers. Aid agencies say many of the bandits come from Chad and Niger.

In the north, another factor fuelling violence is the presence of armed Chadian pastoralists who cross the border during the dry season and sometimes clash with locals over access to grazing routes. And armed poachers operate in the southwest of the country.

But aid agencies say the problems are entwined because bandits thrive on the lawlessness accompanying the political conflict.

Some of the armed men are former Chadian mercenaries who helped bring President Francois Bozize to power in 2003 and maintain his military rule until elections in 2005.

Since then the mercenaries have roamed the countryside, saying they were never given the pay they were promised.

The government signed peace deals with northern rebel groups between 2006 and 2008, hailed by U.N. observers as tentative steps towards peace, although aid workers say the agreements are not respected on the ground.

The Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) includes men who helped Bozize overthrow former President Patasse in 2003. Under a 2007 peace deal its fighters are meant to be integrated into the army. There has been little progress made on this, but the UFDR has worked alongside the army.

The northwest-based Popular Army for Restoring Republic and Democracy (APRD) - is made up of supporters of Patasse.

The leader of the People's Democratic Front (FDPC) is also close to Patasse. The FDPC signed a ceasefire in 2006 but has since limited its involvement in the peace process.

The Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) was formed in late 2008, led by a former member of Patasse's government.

The APRD and UFDR signed a peace deal in June 2008, which included amnesty for the rebel fighters and foresaw their demobilisation for reintegration either into the national army or civilian life. But it did not give immunity from prosecutions for war crimes or crimes against humanity which might be initiated by the ICC, based in The Hague.

A law granting amnesty for government and rebel fighters for armed actions committed after Jan. 1, 1999, was passed in September 2008.

In December, peace talks involving the government, APRD, UFDR and opposition resulted in an agreement to form a consensus government to rule until the 2010 presidential elections.

A UFDR splinter group - the Movement of Central African Liberators for Justice (MLCJ), formed in August 2008 - signed the December 2008 peace deal but in February 2009 announced, together with the FDPC, it was taking up arms again.

Central African Republic's recent history is intimately linked with its neighbours.

Bozize - formerly the army chief - seized power from his predecessor Ange-Felixe Patasse in 2003, with the backing of Chad's President Idriss Deby.

Patasse, in contrast, had the support of Libya and rebels from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo - the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, headed by Jean Pierre Bemba.

The ICC is investigating charges of looting, rape and killings allegedly committed by Bemba's troops in Central African Republic during the 2002-2003 violence. Both Bemba, who was arrested in May 2008, and Patasse, who lives in exile in Togo, deny war crimes accusations.

Thousands of people fled their homes during the two years of fighting that led up to Bozize taking power, while schools, health clinics and public buildings were destroyed.

Once he was in control, Bozize imposed two years of military rule, promising elections in 2005. But when the time came, he refused to allow Patasse - who was in exile in Togo - to stand, and Bozize won the vote.

Since then, however, the government has granted him amnesty and says he is free to return to contest elections in 2010.

Former U.N. aid chief Jan Egeland said in 2006 the close links between Central African Republic, Chad, and Sudan, especially the volatile Darfur region, risks a "really dangerous regional crisis".

Most of Bozize's Chadian troops come from the Zaghawa tribe, according to Africa expert Alex de Waal, as does Chad's President Deby, and some of the rebels in Darfur.

Chadian rebels based in Sudan are also active in CAR, and have even recruited some of their military commanders from the country. When they attacked N'Djamena in April 2006, they crossed CAR to get into Chad, which prompted the CAR government to close its border with Sudan.

Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army have also used eastern CAR as a base, and are believed to be active there now.

Meanwhile, de Waal says Congo, Eritrea, Libya and Uganda all have interests in the country's future.

Former colonial power France helped oust the man who started the trail of coups that have dogged CAR for years - Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a brutal ruler who seized power in 1965. Bokassa, who crowned himself "Emperor" of the new "Central African Empire", found himself out of favour and unable to hold on after the outcry in 1979 when he massacred nearly 100 school children for refusing to wear school uniforms made in his own factory.

Coups, attempted mutinies, military rule, ethnic tensions and corruption have been the norm ever since.

Multinational peacekeepers have been deployed in Central African Republic in various incarnations since 1997.

The U.N. mission, MINURCAT, mandated by the same U.N. Security Council resolution to work in northeastern Central African Republic and eastern Chad, took over from an armed European Union peacekeeping force, EUFOR, in March 2009. EUFOR - almost half of its troops French - was charged with protecting refugee camps. MINURCAT also focuses on training police and advising authorities on human rights and security threats.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, especially in the north, and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) says thousands risk starvation.

Villagers often live in the bush close to their razed villages, continuing to work their fields when they can or clearing new plots of land in the forest. Families often lose their seeds and emergency supplies when their homes are burned and looted, making it hard for them to recover.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled across borders into Chad, Sudan and Cameroon.

During the early 1990s, CAR hosted up to 36,000 refugees who had fled the civil war between north and south Sudan. The majority have returned home since the 2005 peace agreement in Sudan.

Now, however, there are newer arrivals from conflicts in Darfur and Chad. CAR now hosts about 8,000 refugees, most from Sudan, Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo.

More aid organisations have set up shop since 2006, when only a handful of international non-governmental organisations worked in this isolated region. Agencies find it hard to raise funds for their work in CAR, saying donors are reluctant to give money to a country plagued by tensions and a history of corruption.

The official education system is non-existent in the northwest and northeast of the country, where some aid agencies operate "bush schools".

A decade of unstable government has left the health service in tatters. Most health workers in rural areas left their jobs because of insecurity and unpaid wages, and there is a chronic shortage of essential drugs and vaccines.

However, the situation has improved since 2006 when there were just 137 medical doctors (one for every 33,000 people) and 294 state licensed nurses in the entire country, according to the World Health Organisation. Now there are is a doctor for every 3,000 people and a nurse for every 1,000, according to the Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team.

But even where health care exists, few people can afford to pay for it. As a result, the country's health statistics have steadily declined and they are now some of the lowest in the world.

Large numbers of women die during pregnancy and childbirth. Death rates are high for children, many of whom are chronically malnourished and also vulnerable to diarrhoea, malaria, measles and meningitis. The biggest killer is malaria.

The HIV/AIDS rate is one of the highest in the region, with more than 6 percent of the adult population living with the virus in 2008.

The economy has gradually improved since elections in 2005. Official diamond exports - the country's main export earner - have risen 35 percent between 2004 and 2007, according to Kimberley Process figures. However, many problems remain.

Landlocked CAR has few roads, and many of them are impassable in the rainy season. This makes it an expensive place to provide aid, since aid agencies rely heavily on helicopters.

Heavy rains can also cause serious damage in the capital Bangui.

CAR's natural resources - diamonds, gold, an abundance of timber, and uranium reserves - should provide the means for lifting its citizens out of poverty, but after years of misrule corruption is endemic.

There are few comprehensive studies on CAR's economy, but a report for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded in 2004 that CAR's political instability was directly linked to the government's empty coffers and its inability to pay civil service and army salaries.

In another 2004 IMF study, it said the diamond trade was more likely to be destabilising the government than providing revenue for it.

The diamond industry employs around 800,000 people, but the IMF says miners are among the poorest people in CAR.

Smuggling plagues the trade, and diamond exports are likely to be much higher than official figures suggest.

Civil society groups call on rebels and the government to stop the fighting and work towards peace. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Bangui on several occasions to demonstrate against the escalating violence.

Human rights organisations, religious groups and trade unionists say they are also protesting against impunity and mismanagement of the country's affairs.