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 »

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.

UNHCR and sister agencies are helping to make life more bearable in this corner of north-east Central African Republic (CAR) for more than 2,600 refugees who fled attacks on their homes in Sudan’s South Darfur region some seven weeks ago.

But conditions remain harsh in Sam Ouandja and getting supplies to the remote area located some 80 kilometres from the border with Sudan will become increasingly challenging during the rainy season. “It’s difficult here,” said Fatouma Ali Abakar, whose 20-year-old daughter has still not recovered from giving birth in Sam Ouandja three weeks ago to her first child. Continue Reading »

An Aljazeera team travelled to Sam Ouandja to document the situation of the now more than 2,700 refugess from Darfur.

The refugees had arrived in CAR after walking for more than 10 days during nights, after there home town Daffaq had been bombed. Sam Ouandja in CAR is extremely difficult to access by road from Bangui. Humanitarian partners are currently providing first emergency assistance. Click here to see more photos of the refugees.

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.

More than 2,600 refugees from Darfur arrived in Sam Ouandja, in the very east of the Central African Republic in mid-June 2007. They had walked for more than 10 days, at night-time, to reach safety in CAR after their homes in Daffaq in southern Sudan had been bombed.

The humanitarian partners in CAR have started distributing food and shelter items to cover their most basic needs. Sam Ouandja is almost 900km aways from Bangui and very difficult to access during the rainy season, which has started a few weeks ago.

On Monday 28 May a rapid needs assessment mission led by UNHCR and composed of BONUCA, OCHA, WFP, the NGO Triangle and the government visited the town of Sam Ouandja, located in the Haute Kotto prefecture at some 950 kms from Bangui and 80 kms from the Sudan border in north-eastern CAR.

The purpose of the mission was to evaluate the humanitarian needs of a reported influx of Sudanese refugees from the Sudanese town of Daffaq (approximately 15,000 inhabitants), 120 km from the border with CAR and 350 km south of Nyala in South Darfur.

According to the refugees, Sudanese government forces backed by armed militias described as “Janjaweed” attacked Daffaq between 12 and 18 May triggering the forced displacement of civilian populations towards South Sudan and various locations in north-eastern CAR, including Am-Dafok and Sam Ouandja. Continue Reading »

Action Press released a story on the apparent occupation of Sam-Ouandja, a town in the very east of the Central African Republic, close to Sudan’s Darfur region and about 900km from Bangui. According to the report, up to 1,000 people coming from Sudan arrived in the town last week. They are believed to be refugees. The UN will send a mission early next week to get first hand information about the situation and to assess the humanitarian consequences. Read the AP story for more info.

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