The UNICEF office in the Central African Republic has just published their monthly report for August 2009. It contains an overview on the current humanitarian, political and security situation, and provides an update on UNICEF’s ongoing activities in CAR.

Here is the summary of activities and events in August 2009:

• Preliminary assessments conducted in Mambéré Kadei, Sangha Mbaéré and Lobaye by MSF Spain/Belgium, MSF France and ACF revealed that 16% of children aged under 5 are acutely malnourished and 6.6% are severely acutely malnourished. UNICEF is appealing to donors for $1.5 million for lifesaving therapeutic foods, drugs and other supplies; to conduct a national nutritional survey; and train community health workers in early detection of children and women whose nutritional status is compromised.
• 6 schools rehabilitated by ACTED were inaugurated in the presence of the Minister of Education in 3 prefectures of the country: Ouham, Nana Gribizi and Bamingui Bangoran. These schools will allow 1,350 children to learn in better conditions in the upcoming new school year 2009-2010.
• Mid-Year Annual Work Plan (AWP) reviews were organised by the programme sections and sub-offices to compare the activities so far implemented to those initially planned. The AWP was revised to better reflect reality for the rest of the year.
• UNICEF provided financial support to organise training to strengthen the capacity of the school directors, teachers and parents. 130 school directors from Ouham Pendé and 59 from Bamingui Bangoran received training in school management and legislation; 274 parent-teachers from Ouham, 104 from Haute-Kotto, 90 from Bamingui Bangoran and 130 from Kémo were trained on their teaching skills; and 220 members of the PTA of Bossangoa and Bouca were trained on the role of the PTA.
• 101 children (94 boys, 17 girls) associated with armed groups who were released in July were reunified with their families and relatives. To date, UNICEF partners DRC and IRC have supported the reunification and community reintegration of a total number of 361 children (310 boys, 51 girls) formerly associated with the APRD since the child DDR programme began in May 2009.
• The preparatory work for the water and sanitation sector Round Table continued, with the opening of the website at http://tableronde-eau.minplan-rca.org/home and relevant documents uploaded on the site. The round table will be held in Bangui on 8 October 2009.

Click here to download the report

For more information on UNICEF’s activities in the Central African Republic contact:
Hyewon Lee | Reports Officer | UNICEF CAR
Email: hlee@unicef.org | Tel. +236 75 70 63 90

Meeting basic needs in the most isolated corner of Africa

A whole day travelling: that’s the time in which a plane takes its passengers from one side of the world to the other, or how long it takes a family going on holiday in their car to cross a mid-sized country or a large American state. Even a cyclist can easily cover more than 100km (60 miles) in a day.

A truck carefully moves off a rudimentary ferry on the road
north of Bria, north-east CAR.

But in the remote north-east of the Central African Republic, the few Sudanese truckers who try to get their much-needed supplies through to these isolated towns and villages are lucky if they manage to cover 60km (36 miles) in that same day. And that’s during the dry season, when the sand has not turned to sludge and the countless streams are dry and easily forded. When it’s wet, the trucks simply disappear into the morass and wait, totally immobilised for months. There are no bridges – in fact, there is nothing that anyone could really describe as a road, whatever the optimistic twenty-year-old map might indicate. Just a narrow dirt or sand track fast disappearing in the undergrowth, winding its way northwards through the scrub forests for hundreds of kilometres.

The road south of Ouadda.

There are no other routes. This region is as far from the sea as it is possible to get in Africa – 1,600km (1,000 miles) as the crow flies – and in the dry savannah the rivers are far too small for cargo boats. The government has neither the means nor the capacity to govern here; they can provide no security, support or supplies, and have hardly done so for decades. The people who eke out an existence here have no other choice but to be totally self-sufficient, their only connection with the outside world those trucks that manage to get through a few times a year. The truckers, in addition to having to dig themselves out of the sand a few times a day, take the risk of being attacked and robbed by armed bandits who take advantage of the area’s remoteness. Last week, they struck six times within as many days along the only practicable road that leads from Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital, to the north-eastern Vakaga region. With difficulties this big and the tiny profits available from the impoverished population, many truckers are giving up and no longer return.

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HDPT’s Info Bulletin no 40 (November 26 - December 3) is out - with detailed information on current humanitarian and development activities in the Central African Republic. It contains a current overview on the most important developments and news from within and about CAR.
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