BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Members of a national transitional council chose the female mayor of Central African Republic’s capital to lead the country out of chaos Monday, as a top U.N. official urged the international community to keep the nation from “crossing the tipping-point into an all-out sectarian conflict.”

At two meetings in Brussels, international donors pledged a total of $496 million in humanitarian assistance and European Union foreign ministers took a first step toward potentially deploying hundreds more troops to reinforce French and African peacekeepers to secure the lawless and violent country where nearly one million people are displaced.