This is a plea for the Central African Republic. The Central African Republic (CAR) today finds itself in a state of chronic medical emergency. Five separate retrospective mortality surveys, carried out by MSF and other researchers, in prefectures accounting for the majority of the population, show excess mortality above what is considered to be the “emergency threshold.”
And yet the commitment by the country’s government and by the international community is going in the wrong direction. The government has been decreasing its investments in health, as have international donors, while humanitarian assistance has failed to reduce the widespread medical crisis.
The risk is high that the Central African Republic will become trapped: not considered urgent enough for significant emergency aid; not considered trustworthy enough for meaningful development assistance.
For the sake of CAR’s 4.4 million people, this cannot be allowed to happen. Existing levels of medical assistance are plainly insufficient to the scale of the needs. The country needs more actors conducting larger medical operations that reach more of the population.
In this paper, we outline the experiences, analyses and concerns of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) after 14 years working in the country. The report opens with a summary of the published evidence on CAR’s mortality over the past 18 months by MSF and other researchers. We then analyse the various causes for this before summarising the inadequate existing levels of assistance provided by all the various actors, including firstly the government of CAR, but also the international community including ourselves. We conclude with a call for greater medical assistance to the country.
The Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) in the Central African Republic (CAR) was critical in 2010 to cover the most immediate assessed needs of about 1.6 million people in the North West, North East and South East of the country. Sustained generous contributions from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden have allowed further predictability and flexibility, hence relevance of the overall humanitarian response in country. Whether UN agencies or Non governmental organisations, recipient partners have demonstrated strong commitment to address critical needs in most often trying circumstances. The standard allocation process has involved a wide range of stakeholders through the CHF Advisory Board, the Humanitarian Country Team and within the respective clusters.
The campaign is publishing a series of first-person accounts of people who have been forced to flee their homes in the Central African Republic.
Caroline Ngoena.
Caroline Ngoena is thirty nine years old, she lives in the town of Paoua in north western CAR. Pig breeding is how she earns a living for her family of 7 children, she’s also the chairwoman of Yekwa Group in the town. Caroline’s life was turned upside down in March 2006 when violence came to the town.
“We realized that death was at hand. Everyone had to fend for themselves in order to escape death. We didn’t have time to think about the animals because they were sleeping outside. We fled into the bush, 32 kilometres away. We spent three months living in the bush like this.”
The campaign is publishing a series of first-person accounts of people who have been forced to flee their homes in the Central African Republic.
Augustine with her young son.
Augustine has five children and is six months pregnant. She lives in the bush not far from her home in a small village in north western CAR. Augustine miscarried her last pregnancy and is re-building her home in the village, preparing to move back in order to be nearer to hospital facilities when she has to give birth. It’s been six years since she and her family fled their house.
“If the Chadians came and shot at you, would you stay here? I think you would choose to run away from your home and save your life. We are re-building our house, we will come back to the village, life is better in the village – we can get a taxi motorbike to the town and get treatment. But the minute there is gunfire, we will go back to the bush.”
The campaign is publishing a series of first-person accounts of people who have been forced to flee their homes in the Central African Republic.
Clarissa with one of her surviving sons.
Clarissa Dendoubou is from a small village in north western CAR, about 40 kilometres from the border with Chad. Her peaceful life with her husband and 7 children was torn apart one Saturday morning in February 2003.
The government and armed opposition have stepped back from the brink of civil war in the Central African Republic and an uneasy and uneven peace has come to the country. Violations of the peace agreement are frequent, banditry and increasingly fragmented armed groups are continuing to spread fear.
Tens of thousands of CAR’s displaced population – both within the country and beyond its borders – have started to return home, only to find their houses destroyed and their fields overgrown. Some are returning under duress, some of their own free will.
And alongside this pattern of returns in questionable circumstances, new displacements are still taking place – this very mixed pattern is expected to continue in 2009 and into 2010.
It’s essential that the needs of CAR’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are prioritised as the country prepares to move into the next stage of early recovery, that’s what this advocacy campaign on IDPs is here to do: to work with media and humanitarian partners to draw attention to the plight of the most vulnerable victims of the civil war in this country.
Campaign website
Please check back on our campaign page as we add stories and photos from displaced communities around the country.
About HDPT Central African Republic
The Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team (HDPT) unites all organizations working to alleviate the humanitarian and development crisis in the Central African Republic: United Nations agencies, the Red Cross Movement, NGOs and other organizations. For more information, visit About HDPT CAR or email us at info[at]hdptcar.net
Interviews with Dr Ione
Dr Ione describes her incredible experiences in the Central African Republic. A thrilling eye-witness account of the country’s history.
