Central African Republic Faces Deteriorating Humanitarian Situation

from Reuters Alert Net

Source: CARE International - UK
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A joint assessment conducted by CARE International, the Norwegian Refugee Council and World Vision has determined that the Central African Republic is facing a serious humanitarian situation and is now at a crossroads.

Although the Central African Republic has just received $200 million in foreign investments to exploit uranium mines, and has both gold and diamonds, decades of poverty compounded by rebel attacks and incursions from the fighting in Darfur and Chad have made economic development extremely difficult. The UN estimates that 282,000 people, out of a population of four million, have been forced to flee their homes. At least 212,000 are internally displaced and 70,000, including 60% of the country's livestock owners, have fled the country altogether.

While sporadic warfare has taken a toll, the country is also suffering from decades of crushing poverty and a lack of basic infrastructure. Only 39% of the population has access to safe drinking water, and nearly 30% of the country's children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and nearly 300,000 have been cut off from further education. 75% of the country has no access to toilets or sanitary facilities.

The 9-person assessment team, headed by Tom Friedeberg, who has had extensive experience as a country director for CARE in numerous assignments, Mpako Foaleng, country analyst for the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Paul Sitnam, an emergency coordinator for World Vision, reported that if an effort to reverse the country's downward spiral is not made soon, the situation could degenerate into a full-blown humanitarian emergency.

"The biggest problem is the 30 years of neglect and underdevelopment that needs to be addressed," says Friedeberg. "Without an environment of stability, organizations that are interested in providing long term assistance with development programming will not be able to function in that environment and will continue to have to work in short term solutions."

The NRC's Mpako Foaleng is particularly concerned about the impact on youth. "Children currently living with their parents in the bush have had no access to education," she says. "Some adolescent boys and girls and young single mothers joined the rebels to seek protection, while others were forcibly recruited as child soldiersor taken as wives. Bringing schools to where children and adolescents have taken refuge will reduce the level of their vulnerability."

Paul Sitnam concurs. "We got a sense of chronic underdevelopment exacerbated by the conflict," he says. "Many people are coming almost to the end of their coping strategies. We saw a need for peace and stability so that people can get back to their everyday lives. If that happens we can move in with longer term development."

The situation concerning food and access to it is becoming particularly acute. Much of the past harvest (food and seeds) has been destroyed or lost, leaving little for the affected people to eat. As a result, they have had to rely more and more on their coping strategies for finding food- well in advance of the usual 'hungry season' which normally extends from around May to August. To compound this, the lack of available seed stock does not bode well for the 2007 harvest.

The assessment confirmed the findings of previous assessments that the situation in Northern CAR is primarily a humanitarian protection crisis. As suggested by some international actors, increased international presence would certainly discourage targeting civilians in the short term, and it would have an impact on their protection, however, protection on a broader scale can only be provided by the government.

The assessment recommended that the government and rebels remove the "fear factor" by issuing clear orders to their forces to respect international humanitarian law and human rights law and by ending attacks and abuse against civilians.

The assessment determined that the United Nations could play a crucial role in convincing the government to ensure better protection for civilians and to adopt transparent protocols governing humanitarian assistance and facilitating aid.

CARE, World Vision and the Norwegian Refugee Council are international non-governmental organizations devoted to the elimination of poverty and the protection of civilian populations at risk. For more information contact:

CARE: William Dowell, Media and Information Coordinator. Tel: +41 79 590 30 47. Email: dowell@careinternational.org

NRC: Mpako Foaleng, Email Tel: +41 22 799 07 07 Foaleng@nrc.ch.

WORLD VISION: Paul Sitnam, Tel: +221 638 3595. Email paul_sitnam@wvi.org