Prime Minister makes emergency appeal
Bangui, Central African Republic – Faustin Touadera, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, issued an emergency appeal for international support in the wake of a catastrophic failure of the country’s power system. After nearly 60 years of service and erratic maintenance at best, and despite offers from key donors to help over the course of the past few months, CAR’s weak electric infrastructure has taken one more step towards complete collapse. Rolling blackouts, often lasting more than 24 hours, have now plunged the capital into nearly complete darkness. Continue Reading »
Highlights
- FOMUC transforms into FOMAC on 12 July
- Humanitarian appeal for energy in Bangui
- $ 10 million from Peace Building Fund for CAR
- Safe water for over 10,000 inhabitants of Bouar
- CAP Mid-year review 2008: $ 114 million requested
Background and security
FOMUC transforms into FOMAC
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), Egidio De Sousa Santos from Angola, confirmed on 1 July in Kinshasa that the Multi-national Force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (FOMUC) will transform into the Multi-national Force of the CEEAC (FOMAC) during a ceremony on 12 July in Bangui. Continue Reading »
As many as 1 million people in the conflict-affected areas of the Central African Republic (CAR) do not have access to clean water and are at risk of a host of waterborne diseases that kill thousands of people every year.
The situation is particularly dire in the north-eastern parts of the country, such as Haute Kotto, where a mere 1 per cent of people can access potable water. Further, across the conflict-torn north, tens of thousands of people have fled their villages and now live in the bush. Too afraid to return to their villages to get clean water, they are forced to resort to collecting water wherever they can find it, often from stagnant ponds or rivers in the bush.
For those who have remained in their villages, the situation is often not much better - over one quarter of wells in northern CAR are currently not working, leaving thousands of villagers as exposed to waterborne diseases as the displaced population are. Continue Reading »
According to government data presented at the 26 June Development Partner Consultation in Brussels, only 31.5 percent of the population in urban areas and 26.0 percent in rural areas of the Central African Republic have access to safe drinking water (2006). More than 69 percent of Central Africans lack adequate hygiene facilities.
Photographer Pierre Holtz documented in Vakaga what it means when people do not have access to safe drinking water.
Click here for a slideshow
