The UN has sounded alarm over a potential new bloodbath in the Central African Republic as France prepares to extend the stay of its troops in its troubled former colony.
The UN's refugee body said more than 15,000 people were surrounded and under threat of armed attack in locations in the northwest and southwest of the country.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva that the vulnerable - mainly members of the minority Muslim community - were "at very high risk of attack" and urgently needed better security in the form of more international peacekeepers.
His warning came as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius defended his country's military intervention in its former colony, saying there would have been a genocide if France had not deployed its force in December.
"If the Operation Sangaris had not been launched, the CAR would today be in a genocide situation," Fabius said on France 2 television.
The claim came ahead of a debate in the French Parliament on extending the military operation in a country which has been torn apart by bloody sectarian strife.
Opposition MPs in France have been increasingly vocal in their criticism of the country's intervention, although that was not expected to prevent them from approving an extension of the force's mandate.
"Nothing has been resolved, the country is still on fire," said Eric Woerth, a former minister from the centre-right UMP party of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The number of French peacekeepers on the ground is being increased from 1600 to 2000 to support a 6000-strong African Union force.
The UNHCR's Edwards said far more troops were needed to halt the cycle of violence.
"Their numbers are far too low considering the size of the country and the scope of the crisis," he said.
CAR descended into chaos last March after mostly Muslim rebels overthrew the government, initiating a spiral of sectarian bloodletting.
CAR's interim President, Catherine Samba Panza, has called for international troops to remain in the country until elections due by March 2015.
