Highlights

• Fourth meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Global Peace Accord between the CAR government and other politico-military actors at Libreville on the 31st of January
• 4,500 CAR refugees in southern Chad
• Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) 2009 for CAR launched 28 January

Background and security

Fourth meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Global Peace Accord at Libreville

The Minister of State for National Reconciliation and Dialogue Monitoring, Cyriaque Gonda, announced the first meeting of the Committee for the pilot Disarmament, Demobilisation and Re-integration Programme for former fighters on the 3rd of February in Bangui – the announcement was made at the end of the fourth meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Global Peace Accord.

The committee is headed up by the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative in CAR and by two vice presidents – Jean-Jacques Demafouth from the Armée Populaire pour la Restauration de la Démocratie (APRD) as well as Cyriaque Gonda.
The committee is made up of representatives from five politico-military movements as well as partners such as the United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP), the World Bank, the European Commission, France, MICOPAX, General Ndougou and Stanislas Mbango, who is representing the CAR government.

Minister of State Cyriaque Gonda explained that the Libreville meeting gave participants the opportunity to discuss significant phases in the disarmament process and to look into the financial commitment needed to set the DDR in motion.

The Peace Consolidation Fund for CAR has already set aside 4 million US dollars to support the DDR process; the European Union has committed to 50 million Euro as well..

The immediate start of the DDR programme is one of the most fundamental and urgent recommendations put forward at the Inclusive Political Dialogue (IPD).

Current events

Influx of CAR refugees into Chad

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Chad reports that 4,500 refugees from CAR are in the south of Chad, having fled attacks by armed groups. They fear new confrontations between the groups and government forces in the north of CAR.
On the 28th of January, a joint humanitarian mission made up of the United Nations Mission in Chad and CAR (MINURCAT) and the European Union Forces (EUFOR) went to Daha, a Chad village near the CAR border.

The new refugees, mostly women and children, had arrived in two waves at Daha. The first group was made up of approximately 200 civil servants and local officials who had fled their villages in the Ngarba region at the end of December when armed groups arrived. The second group of more than 4,000 people left on the 16th and 17th of January, fearing confrontation between CAR government forces and rebels.

Acccording to UNHCR, the new arrivals are from a cluster of 20 villages near CAR’s northern border with Chad. They appear to be in good health. Nevertheless, these refugees have arrived without anything, are in urgent need of food and humanitarian assistance.
In Chad’s south, UNHCR is running 5 camps which are home to almost 56,000 refugees from CAR.

Support for defense and security forces

3 courses on survey techniques, general information and command were held for employees of the ‘Gendarmerie Nationale’ (national police) as part of the mission to strengthen the capacity of CAR’s defence and security forces, in partnership with the Office for the United Nations Organisation in CAR (BONUCA). French military cooperation also provided financial support to these training sessions.
The course, established to benefit 71 police officers, follows on from an initial training session with 40 detective officers from the same corps. One of the aims of this training session is to focus on the ethical nature of their responsibilities.

Over the course of several months, the participants got to know the educational content – legal theory, procedural practice of professional techniques – under they guidance of trainers from the CAR national police as well as ‘Coopération Française’ (French co-operation). The closing ceremony took place on the 4th of February at the Gendarmerie School at Kolong in Bangui.

Coordination

Coordinated Aid Programme for CAR 2009

28 January saw 150 people descended on the SOS Children’s Village at Bangui – they came from the international community, humanitarian and development staffs and the national press – all to mark the launch of the Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) in CAR. The ceremony was chaired by the Delegate Minister of Planning Raymond Adouma and the interim Humanitarian Coordinator Maï Moussa Abari, the event also saw the launch of the IDP Advocacy Campaign in CAR.

Mai Moussa Abari looked back on CAP 2008 in his speech, a programme which was funded to 91%, making that CAP the best funded ever. For the year 2009, the CAP includes 105 projects in various sectors – health, water, sanitation, protection (human rights and governance), early recovery, education, food security, multi-sectoral aid for refugees, food, non food items and coordination.

The funds necessary to provide aid to almost 1 million Central Africans amount to 116 million US dollars..
”CAP 2008 was one of the best funded ever although the many remain vulnerable in the country,’ said the interim Humanitarian Coordinator. I’m launching an appeal to donors fcr CAP 2009 to be as well financed as that of last year in order to allow us to continue to relieve the suffering of Central Africans.”

Louise Williams, IDP advocacy campaign officer for CAR explained that the awareness building campaign aims to draw attention to the lives of those who have been displaced, their rights as well as preventing future displacements.

Robert Makiabe, a displaced person from the Begatara site near Paoua gave a witness account of his daily life.”The first and the most precious of things that I have lost is peace,” he told the crowd. ”I’ve lost the right to move freely in my own country…despite the help of various international organizations, problems continue and get worse the longer we stay on a site in the bush. The problems we are coming up against are: constant unrest, lack of food, medical care – especially for children under 12, pregnant women, old people who are not strong enough to make it to the health centres far from the campsite.”

Mr. Makiambe finished his presentation by thanking all the international organizations without whose help his suffering would never have been relieved and he also thanked the government which has agreed to support the IDP advocacy campaign.

Contact Us:
Gisèle Willybiro | willybiro@un.org | +236 75 54 90 31

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