At the same time that UNHCR is registering 10,500 new refugees from the Béhili area in north west CAR, a substantial number of Central African refugees are returning from Chad to the area of Moyenne Sido and Kabo, only 50km east of Béhili. These returning refugees fled the Central African Republic during 2002 and 2003, and were living at Yaroungou camp in Chad.
In Moyenne Sido, people are constructing hundreds of grass huts
Over the past few days, a site with thousands of people – between 3,000 and 5,000 – constructing hundreds of grass huts has sprung up just outside Moyenne Sido. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, February 12th, the deployment of EUFOR troops resumed after an 11 day stoppage caused by the rebellion break through in Chad.
The instable polititcal situation in Chad has generated further delay in the deployment of the EUFOR Chad/CAR, which will support the UN mission MINURCAT already operating in Chad and Sudan. But according to Javier Solana, High Representative for the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, rebellion in Chad is not compromising the peace keeping mission: Continue Reading »
The UN/EU peacekeeping mission to Chad and the Central African Republic is rapidly taking shape. The European Union is determined to dispatch 4,300 troops from 20 countries within the next weeks. They will work alongside 350 United Nations police and military personnel who will work to protect the fragile triangle between CAR, Chad and the war-torn Darfur region in Sudan. This article is a complete round-up on the current situation of this crucial mission to stabilize the region. Continue Reading »
(UN SC, New York). Deeply concerned about the humanitarian threat posed by armed groups on the borders of the Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, the Security Council this morning decided to establish what it called a “multidimensional presence”, in concert with European forces, in eastern Chad and the north-eastern Central African Republic.
According to resolution 1778 (2007), adopted unanimously by the 15-member body, that presence would consist of the new United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, to be known as MINURCAT, and troops deployed by the European Union with a robust authorization to protect and support it. Both groups were mandated to operate for an initial period of one year. Continue Reading »
(OCHA, New York, 14 September 2007): The entire population of some 12,000 people has now fled from their homes in the area between the towns of Markounda and Silambi, in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR) on the border with neighbouring Chad, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for CAR, Toby Lanzer.
For months, civilians have been caught between various armed factions, including state and non-state actors from CAR and Chad. In late August, reports from the region made it clear that, following a particularly acute period of violence, the population had escaped into the bush. A United Nations mission, led by Mr. Lanzer, traveled to the Markounda-Silambi axis in the Ouham prefecture 500 kilometres or twelve hours north of the capital, Bangui, from 7 to 10 September. Continue Reading »
Reuters published a short brief on violence in the CAR-Chad-Sudan triangle on alertnet. A good primer on the regional dimension of the crisis in CAR.
The World Bank, in partnership with the European Union, the African Development Bank and the French Development Agency, will invest $680 million in three countries – Chad, Cameroon and Central African Republic, to improve the regional transport infrastructure.
The 2,000 kilometer stretch that connects the Douala Port in western Cameroon to the country’s landlocked neighbors Central African Republic and Chad is known as one of Africa’s worst. The connection is one of the last major trade routes without all-weather, paved roads going from one part of Africa to another.
Shippers struggle to get their goods to and from international markets. Trade is hampered for thousands and the deplorable infrastructure is a substantial toll on the price of doing business regionally. Transport costs are the highest in the world. Read more about this vital project on the World Bank’s website.
The Central African Republic (CAR) has gone through more than 20 years of relative and absolute under-development. Today, Central Africans are worse off than they were 20 years ago.
The chart below shows Human Development Indicator (HDI) trends for CAR and its neighbours. The HDI value for CAR was 0.355 in 2006, well below the value for 1985, and essentially the same as in the early 1970s, while countries like Sudan or Chad are substantially better off today.
The Human Development Indicator combines measures of life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income to allow a broader view of a country’s development than does income alone. Click here for more info on the HDI and the Human Development Reports.
The UK’s leading international aid charities have launched a joint emergency appeal to save lives in Darfur, Chad and the Central African Republic.
The inclusion of the Central African Republic will allow the humanitarian community to start assistance in parts of CAR that have not seen any humanitarian or development projects in many years.
For more on the appeal check out the website of the Disasters Emergency Committee
