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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On 25 April, the Preparatory Committee for the Inclusive Political Dialogue (PCIPD) handed out its conclusions to President François Bozizé, initiating the 45 day period to organize the actual dialogue.

On this occasion, François Lonseny Fall, the UN Special Representative to the General Secretary, congratulated President Bozizé for the political will he demonstrated during the preparation phase and for his constant support to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) who worked with the PCIPD. Mr Fall also reiterated the “UN determination to pursue its efforts in this important step in the life of the Central African nation”, which he hopes, “will encourage the rise of a lasting peace, necessary for a sustainable and appropriate development in the country.” Continue Reading »

At the end of April, the United Nations opened its new base in Ndélé, the capital of the Bamingui-Bangoran prefecture in northern CAR. The base, which has been constructed by the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA) with funding from the Swedish government, will provide office space and accommodation for 6 people and will be open to all humanitarian and development organisations working in the area.

The large Bamingui-Bangoran prefecture borders Chad and the CAR’s northeastern Vakaga region. In 2006, Ndélé momentarily gained international notoriety when the town was occupied by the UFDR rebel group during its bid to overthrow President Bozizé in Bangui. Continue Reading »

Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions visited the Central African Republic to inquire into extra-judicial executions in the recent past.

In his preliminary report, he states that “Up until very recently Government forces were burning entire villages to the ground and summarily executing large numbers of people. As of today, these abuses have fallen dramatically. But while President Bozizé has shown that he has the power to prevent the military from committing human rights abuses, it is still too early to conclude that the Government has definitively turned a new page.” A final, detailed report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in June. We are posting his full statement below. Continue Reading »

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced on 8 January that the Central African Republic was eligible for continuing support from the UN Peacebuilding Fund. This announcement follows an emergency decision last September to provide $800,000 in support of a broad-based political dialogue in the country. The Peacebuilding Fund was launched in October 2006 with a mandate to support post-conflict countries’ efforts to consolidate peace and avoid recidivism. Continue Reading »

Below is an open letter by Toby Lanzer, United Nations Resident Coordinator in CAR, to The Independent newspaper in response to Johann Hari’s article “Inside France’s secret war”. Mr Lanzer’s letter suggests unbalanced coverage and a lack of attention to the Central African Republic’s recent progress. Continue Reading »

The Central African Republic (CAR) successfully held its first Development Partner Round Table in Brussels on Friday, gathering much needed donor support for the impoverished nation. Donors pledged to spend USD 600 million over the next three years to finance crucial humanitarian and development projects. Continue Reading »

The UN System in CAR held a series of public information days earlier this week at the Alliance Française in Bangui, culminating in United Nations Day on Wednesday, October 24. The public was invited to visit stands set up by most UN agencies, ask questions and debate agency representatives, as well as attend presentations on UN activities in the country.

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