France plans to increase the number of troops it has deployed in the Central African Republic.

After a meeting on the matter at the Elysee Presidential palace on Friday, a source said that the troops would be added to the existing 1,600 already deployed by France to its former colony.

Details on the number of troops that would be added were not revealed.

A report by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) in January says the crisis has uprooted nearly a million people, a fifth of the population.

A Muslim rebel group, the Seleka, unleashed a wave of killing and looting after seizing power in March last year.

Some countries, including Nigeria, have evacuated their citizens from C.A.R., after the 1,600 existing French troops and nearly 4,000 African Union peacekeepers have done little to contain the tit-for-tat violence between religious communities.