The onset of rains in CAR will aggravate the humanitarian situation if urgent action is not taken sopecam
The warning bells are already ringing. Both the UN and aid agencies in the Central African Republic, CAR, agree that the humanitarian situation is sufficiently serious, and risks becoming a disaster of untold proportions if nothing is quickly done; given that the rains will soon begin.
Looming Famine
About 1.3 million people across the country do not have enough to eat. Hundreds of families displaced since early December 2013 desperately need basic assistance, including food, water, shelter and health care. The World Food Progarmme, WFP and partners have reached hundreds of thousands of people with food aid since last December, but continue to face major challenges.
Early last week, delivery of food aid and other essential supplies resumed at Bangui M’Poko International Airport, one of the largest displacement sites in the capital that currently hosts over 100,000 people. Deliveries there were suspended last week due to security concerns, but aid agencies managed to get supplies to over 4,400 families and vaccinated more than 40,000 children aged under five for measles.
Millions In Need
An estimated 2.5 million people of the country’s 4.6 million residents are in need of humanitarian assistance. One in five people has fled their homes. Just over 900,000 Central Africans now live in 115 makeshift sites and host communities across the country. This includes 500,000 people displaced in the month following the December 5, 2013 clashes in the capital, Bangui. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, over 290,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries.
Most Schools Shut Down
Over 60 per cent of schools in Bangui are housing people displaced by fighting. According to the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, about 2.5 million children have been affected by the conflict. Many have been forced to join armed groups and have been exposed to sexual violence. UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake, says children have suffered death and injury and witnessed terrible things that no child should ever see, much less endure. So many children, who were displaced from their homes and separated from their families, have been recruited by armed groups.
Undernourished Population
An estimated 90 per cent of people now eat just one meal a day as a result of persistent insecurity and the collapse of local markets. The World Food programme, WFP, warns that it is running out of food for the growing number of displaced people in the country. The agency reported that 38 trucks loaded with rice were stuck at the Cameroon border, with the drivers refusing to cross due to the threat of attacks.
"Suspending food distributions could lead to further tension, particularly among the 100,000 displaced people at the overcrowded Bangui M'Poko International Airport camp," WFP warned. The food distribution situation has been aggravated by the eviction of Moslems – who were heavily involved in the business – from most of the southern part of the country.
Insufficient Funding
A food crisis is looming after nearly a year of violence, OCHA Coordinator, Abdou Dieng, warned last week. He explained that funds pledged last January to tackle the crisis have not yet materialised, though only one-fifth of the 500 million US Dollars (about FCFA 236 billion) promised at a donors’ conference in Brussels, Belgium, is intended for CAR. If adequate attention is not paid, the crisis will deepen when people begin to die of hunger. “Seeds should be planted before the rainy season starts because the rains will cut off some areas," Dieng advised.
A Development Disaster
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, the CAR conflict was already labelled a “development disaster” when, in December 2012, Séléka rebel forces in the north began to march on the capital, Bangui. CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 179th out of 187 countries. It has been embroiled in a decade-long series of armed conflicts that have aggravated its problems.
