Highlights

• Appointment of Joseph Binguimalé as the head of the Independent Electoral Commission
• Nearly 475 Central African refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• The Deputy Executive Director of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Hilde Johnson visited CAR
• “Reducing the impact of soaring food prices in CAR”

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Highlights

• Baba Laddé, Chadian leader of the rebel group FRP, expelled by the government
• Abdoulaye Miskine of FDPC denounces 2007 peace agreements
• Arrival of new NGO Community Humanitarian Emergency Board (COHEB)
• Establishment of a multifunctional platform (PFMF) in Paoua
• Sahle-Work Zewde, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations (SRSG), visited Birao

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Highlights

• The NGO Coopi was attacked by LRA gunmen in Obo prefecture (south-eastern CAR)
• FPR forces withdraw from Nana-Gribizi prefecture, destination unknown
• New documentary film about orphans funded by French Development Agency (AFD), highlighting difficult conditions and numerous challenges
• Workshop on the humanitarian strategy in 2010 to formulate the Coordinated Appeals Process (CAP) for humanitarian projects in 2010, including around 70 participants

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The first World Humanitarian Day was celebrated in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR) on 19 August with a ceremony and exhibition of humanitarian work attended by the Prime Minister of CAR and members of the government, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) of the United Nations, diplomats and many members of the humanitarian community.

Six years ago, a truck-bomb exploded in Baghdad killing twenty-two people, including UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and one of the world’s great humanitarians, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Worldwide, more than 700 humanitarian workers have lost their lives in the past decade.

In CAR, a nurse working for an international NGO was shot and killed in 2007. SRSG Sahle-Work Zewde stated, “This year alone, humanitarian workers have been subjected to ambushes and armed robbery by bandits who threatened to execute them and left them stranded in the bush. They have been taken hostage by people who seek ransom, or who question their impartiality. But they are still here, and they deserve our praise and solidarity.” The occasion was marked by a minute of silence to remember the sacrifices which people all over the world have made to bring assistance to others.

Fragile progress

The Central African Republic is one of the world’s poorest countries, currently ranking second from bottom (178th of 179) on the Humanitarian Development Index. It has suffered from insecurity and violence across the north for half a decade, causing over 100,000 refugees to flee the country and a similar number to hide in the bush, too afraid to return home.

Since 2007, the international community has become increasingly aware of what was previously an all but forgotten conflict, causing humanitarian aid to increase from $10 million in 2005 to more than $100 million in 2008. It currently accounts for more than 30% of total overseas assistance to the country, and has proven particularly effective in targeting fragile zones across the north where development aid is slowest to arrive.

Resurgent crisis

Despite this, the situation remains precarious. Humanitarian funding to date in 2009 has fallen significantly. The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund contributed $2.8 million recently, recognising it as an underfunded emergency. Even so, over $40 million of humanitarian needs cited in the country’s Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) remain unmet. Continue Reading »

Catherine Bragg (centre) and Sitta Kai-Kai,
head of WFP (bottom right) with displaced
people living in the bush north of Kabo.

(Bangui/New York, 30 July 2009): United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Catherine Bragg, ended a five-day mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) with a call for improved protection of civilians in the country.

“Despite a general improvement of the situation in some areas, the situation is still very volatile and the displaced population remains traumatised,” said Ms. Bragg. “Fear is very evident amongst the people who had to repeatedly leave their villages and watch their homes and livelihoods being looted, burnt and destroyed,” she added.

She said the absence of the police and the judiciary in some areas has led to human rights violations and a culture of impunity.

Although some displaced people started to return to their places of origin in 2008, hostilities this year caused further displacement and slowed the momentum of return, she noted, expressing hope that efforts by all parties to restore peace and security will help limit displacement and encourage voluntary return of civilians to their homes.

Humanitarian agencies estimate that one million civilians are affected by conflict in the Central
African Republic, including 125,000 who are internally displaced.

Ms. Bragg also deplored the funding shortfall that humanitarian agencies continue to face. Current funding requirements amount to $97 million. Some $48 million of the total required for the humanitarian response remains outstanding.

During her visit, Ms. Bragg met President Francois Bozize and Prime Minister Faustin Archange Touadera. She also visited internally displaced people in the towns of Birao, Kabo and Paoua and had meetings with humanitarian workers in those areas.

Ms. Bragg said humanitarian organisations in some of the areas she visited still had difficulties accessing certain vulnerable groups due to insecurity and the bad state of roads and bridges, particularly during the rainy season.

The Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator urged the national authorities to ensure that humanitarian agencies had unhindered access to all those in need.

The full text of all press releases relating to this visit are available here:

Press release 1 - English (PDF) - 28 kb
Press release 2 - English (PDF) - 28 kb
Final Press release - English (PDF) - 24 kb

(UN/IRIN) The Central African Republic (CAR) has been in the throes of a humanitarian crisis for more than a decade. Army mutinies, coups and attempted coups, rebellions, gangs that kidnap for ransom and, more recently, elements of Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army have made life for civilians, especially in the north, extremely challenging, unpredictable, and very dangerous.

Click here for more IRIN reports from the Central African Republic

Highlights

• MINURCAT replaces EUFOR
• CEMAC celebrations
• Fresh figures on displaced population
• UN annual work plans in place

Background and security

CEMAC – one year on
Monday the 16th of March saw the launch of the first ‘CEMAC day’ at the institution’s headquarters in Bangui. The celebrations were presided over by the Central African head of state François Bozizé who is also President of CEMAC, the Central African Economic and Monetary Community.

President Bozizé made a speech the day before which was broadcast on radio to highlight the need for regional integration and exchanges on concepts around life in the community. According to CEMAC’s president, the development of community infrastructures remains a priority, in particular in the areas of communication, basic infrastructure, the fields of energy and technology as well as taking advantage of the country’s human and natural resources.

CEMAC was created on the 25th of June 2008 at the last community Heads of State summit in Yaounde in Cameroon. The aim of the annual celebrations is to raise awareness amongst member states’ populations of the ideas of the institution as well as the benefits of regional integration and the advantages of joining forces with other nations.
Concerts and public broadcasts marked the holding of this first CEMAC day in Bangui.

News

EUFOR replaced by the UN
MINURCAT (United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad) has taken over the reins from EUFOR (European Union Force) which has come to the end of its deployment in north east CAR and eastern Chad. EUFOR had been in place since March 2008; the hand-over ceremony took place on the 15th of March 2009.

MINURCAT takes responsibility for protection of vulnerable civilians, in particular refugees and displaced people, facilitating humanitarian aid distribution and the movement of humanitarian staff. It also contributes to staff protection, UN equipment installation. Another MINURCAT mission is to create conditions on the ground in order to facilitate voluntary return of Internally Displaced People (IDPs).
2,300 of the total 3,300 troops will stay in place, including soldiers from Albania, Austria, Croatia, Finland, France, Ireland, Poland and Russia. New troop contributing countries include Ghana, Nepal, Norway, Togo and Pakistan with Ghanaian, Nepalese and Togolese arriving in the next few weeks.

Clashes between self-defence groups and the APRD
Hopes for a peaceful future in the Central African Republic have been dampened by a rise in the number of displaced people due to clashes between self-defence groups and the APRD in the north of the country. 7 are reported to have died in violence at Bézéré in the sub-prefecture of Bocaranga on the 6th of March, leading to the displacement of approximately 795 people, or 157 households to the towns of Koui and Bocaranga. Continue Reading »

(KJ*) Over the last two years, humanitarian assistance has made a decisive contribution to the stabilization the Central African Republic while the country’s condition was at its most critical. Back from the brink of collapse, the benefits of peace and stability now would have to be spread much wider throughout this desperately poor country, if the patient were to recover successfully. However, while humanitarian assistance is levelling off and may well decrease in 2009, development support is still lacking too far behind to pick up the thread. The looming recovery gap now jeopardizes CAR’s fragile progress, as data from the country’s new aid management system shows.

Improving aid effectiveness

In November 2008, the Central African Republic (CAR) and its partners launched a new aid management system (DAD). Widely used in Asia but still rare in Africa, the goal of this online database is to make humanitarian and development aid more transparent, coordinated and effective. Previously, no central data source existed to help decision-makers understand who finances projects, who works in which sectors, in which locations, and where the gaps are. As in many other African states critically dependent on foreign support, the absence of reliable data was a stumbling block to improved aid effectiveness. Less than four months after the system’s launch, detailed financial, sector and geographical data for almost 300 projects is now available online. While the usual caveats on aid statistics apply (the data will not account for 100 percent of all transfers), the numbers are nevertheless already a reasonably good reflection of the realities in CAR.

Good numbers on the surface

At first sight, the recent data on aid to the Central African Republic looks encouraging. Between 2005 and 2007, total foreign assistance to CAR more than doubled from about $117m to $242m. The increase is particularly significant, given that CAR had long been a forgotten crisis. While aid to Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole went up by more than 90 percent between 1985 and 2006, it fell by almost 50 percent for CAR. During this time, the country’s development catastrophe slowly turned into a humanitarian emergency, directly affecting more than a million people and forcing up to 300,000 into displacement. CAR now ranks 178 out of 179 on the UN’s Human Development Index. More than two thirds of the population live in poverty. Reaching the Millennium Development Goals has become a distant dream. Continue Reading »

Once there was a fairy-tale image of the brave and noble humanitarian, who would storm into conflict zones – armed only with vaccines and sacks of food – and indiscriminately save lives, having no other impact that a strictly humanitarian one. In the mid-1990s, that image was shattered. Strikingly common-sensical, Mary Anderson laid out the idea of Do No Harm, based on the realisation that humanitarian assistance takes place within a political context, and that so-called humanitarians, in their eagerness to do good, risked exacerbating tensions and deepening conflicts. Of course, this insight was not new. As long as there have been conflicts, people in violence-ridden countries have seen foreigners appear and influence the course of events. Having them arrive in white Landcruisers with colourful flags hardly changed the essential point that, in a conflict zone, everything is political.

Pierre Holtz for UNICEF / HDPT CAR

Acknowledging that emergency aid can have unintended and potentially disastrous consequences should not, and has not, led humanitarian organisations to pack up their vaccination kits and go home. On the contrary: while the idea of Do No Harm is as relevant today as ever, there is no reason why it could not have a positive twin. This twin idea – ‘Do More Good’ – suggests that impartial and effective humanitarian action can have a positive impact beyond its primary aim of saving lives and relieving suffering, i.e. to create some breathing-space for conflict-torn communities and lay the foundations for stability and development. Just such a window of opportunity may exist today in the Central African Republic. Although this window may close fast, it does appear that positive change could be possible. Aid organisations are playing a central role in helping to bring it about. Continue Reading »

The UNICEF office in the Central African Republic has just published their monthly report for July / August 2008. It contains an excellent overview on the current humanitarian, political and security situation, as well as UNICEF’s activities in CAR.

Here is the summary of activities and events in July / August:

• The APRD rebel group pulls out of CAR’s Inclusive Political Dialogue
• The UN Peacebuilding Fund grants CAR US$10million
• The World Bank provides US$7million to alleviate the impact of rising food prices in CAR
• One million Central Africans to benefit from the distribution of essential medicines
• HIV/AIDS workshop held in Bangui
• A second inter-agency protection mission is conducted in southeastern CAR
• 160,000 people in 400 villages receive information on basic hygiene practices
• Current UNICEF appeal funded at just 34%

Click here to download the report (PDF - 1.7MB)

For more information on UNICEF’s activities in the Central African Republic contact:

Anne Boher
Communications Officer
UNICEF CAR
Email aboher[at]unicef.org | Mobile +236 75 58 96 01

Frederic Courbet/Merlin/Panos

Over one million people - a quarter of CAR’s population - have been affected by violence. As the country fell apart, so too did its health service. As campaigns Manager for Merlin, the medical aid agency, I recently visited CAR to find out how the country, and its health service, is recovering.

Save for “bits here and there”, Jean Preside Saya has not been paid since 1989. He runs the health clinic in Grevai, a remote village 65km from the nearest hospital.

Six months ago, the clinic had no drugs, no equipment, and often no patients. “People stopped coming,” he said. “It was frustrating - as health workers, we feel we can treat most complaints but what are we meant to do without drugs? Even a traditional healer has drugs.”

“Expect insecurity, instability, no electricity, no running water. Desperation, basically,” said my Ghanaian passenger, as our plane bounced into Bangui, the capital of CAR.
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The video follows actress and activist Mia Farrow as she visited the forgotten victims of atrocities in the Central African Republic in the summer of 2008.

Highlights

• Tensions between Government and APRD
• Assessment of the Kabo-Batangafo road by Solidarités
• Edmund Mulet, Under-Secretary General of the Department of Peace Keeping Operations, in Bangui on 2 September

Background and security

Tensions between Government and APRD
A contingent of about 100 government army and presidential guard soldiers on 3 September clashed with fighters of the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy (APRD) on the Bozoum-Paoua road. A reported seven APRD members were killed. The army contingent is currently stationed in Paoua.
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Photo: Pierre Holtz for UNICEF CAR

A member of a self-defense group carrying his traditional rifle in a flower field, near the village of Sambaye, 10 km west of Bozoum, in north-western Central African Republic.

Self-defense groups help to ward off the threat of bandits who loot, kidnap and sometimes kill, allowing more families to return to their houses and fields. The community of Sambaye pays $42 for the weapon and ammunition of each group member, who are recruited on a voluntary basis among village’s men and women. Several displaced families from Sambaye started to come back to three months ago, thanks to improved security offered by the group.

UNICEF advocates to communities to prevent the use of children in self-defense groups.

In the Central African Republic, UNICEF, with funding from the European Commission, is supporting bush schools to provide education and a sense of normalcy to displaced children.