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| Women in Gordil, Central African Republic (CAR), carry food and water back home as evening descends. Photo: OCHA/Gemma Cortes |
28 November 2016 – With nearly half the population in the Central
African Republic (CAR) in need of humanitarian assistance, some $400
million is required over the coming year to shore up relief efforts that
will be critical “to save the lives of people who are among the poorest
and most forgotten on this planet,” a senior United Nations official
said today.
Speaking to UN Member States in Geneva, the Minister for Social Welfare
and Reconciliation, Virginie
Baikoua, and the UN Humanitarian
Coordinator for CAR, Fabrizio Hochschild, said the funds are desperately needed despite the progress made over the past three years.
Clashes between the mainly Muslim Séléka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka
militia, which are mostly Christian, plunged the country of 4.5 million
people into civil conflict in 2013. Despite significant progress and
successful elections, CAR has remained in the grip of instability and
sporadic unrest. More than 13,000 UN staff are currently based in the
country as part of the UN Integrated Multifaceted Stabilization Mission
in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
Sounding the alarm about the dire situation in the country, Mr.
Hochschild said the CAR’s “chronic poverty and obscurity has been
compounded by conflict. In the last three months six conflicts erupted
leading to hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands displaced, and I
don’t know if it commanded a single line in the international press.”
Nearly $400 million is required to meet the needs of 1.6 million Central Africans in 2017, according to the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2017, which complements the 5-year national recovery and stabilization plan that was launched by the CAR Government in Brussels on 17 November.
Minister for Social Welfare and Reconciliation of the Central
African Republic (CAR), Virginie Baikoua (right), and the UN
Humanitarian Coordinator for CAR, Fabrizio Hochschild, brief the press
in Geneva. Photo: UN Geneva
Despite its considerable agricultural potential, CAR has some of the
highest chronic malnutrition rates in the world – almost one in two
children – due to ongoing insecurity, poor access to clean water and
health care, as well as lack of seeds and tools. Maternal and early
childhood mortality rates are also among the highest in the world.
Eruptions of violence over the past year meant that one in 10 war weary
central African remains a refugee, the majority in neighbouring
Cameroon, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
However, of the close to one million people who were displaced within
the country in early 2014, almost half have returned home. In this
regard, Mr. Hochschild underscored that “humanitarian efforts are
critical to stabilise the country while its pressing development,
political and security needs are addressed.”
Moreover, outside the capital, Bangui, Mr. Hochschild described “an
economy of war” that is preventing peaceful development and which is
responsible for ongoing poverty and malnutrition.
Although the UN representative said there are “no quick fixes”
for CAR, he hopes that this time, it could become a “beacon of peace” in
a troubled region, partly because the country now has its first
democratically elected Government, which is actively engaging with
international partners.
UN news centre
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