CERF allocates $2.3 million to underfunded humanitarian activities in CAR
24 September 2007: CERF allocates $2.3 million to CAR as part of the second underfunded allocation in 2007
"The Central African Republic is one of the region’s biggest crises and certainly the most forgotten one” said John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
![Marie Ledjounoun, 20, pumping water from a pump funded by the CERF Water and Sanitation project [Photo: UN/CAR]](/Portals/11/Images_country/CAR_pumpingwater_UN_crop.jpg) |
| Marie Ledjounoun, 20, pumping water from a pump funded by the CERF Water and Sanitation project [Photo: UN/CAR] |
Violence has now displaced a greater proportion of the population in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR) than in any other country of the world. Torching villages, unknown in CAR until November 2005, has become routine, summary executions reign in a climate of impunity, and rape shatters the dignity and health of the country’s women. This is the reality faced by one million people scattered in small villages or seeking refuge in the bush along the borders with Chad and Sudan. And it comes on top of the world’s most oppressive poverty which has seen almost two thirds of CAR’s population of 4.2 million survive on less than US$ 1 per day.
The mortality rate of children under five has gone above the emergency threshold. The crisis is based on a menacing web of politics, insecurity and poverty. Humanitarian action can never resolve these problems, but it can alleviate the terrible suffering of hundreds of thousands of people caught in the cross-fire, chased from their villages, or living in areas where war has destroyed economic activity. Providing succour to our fellow man during times of distress is a responsibility shared by all.
The worst violence continues in the northwest, in particular near the borders with Cameroon and Chad. This is where a volunteer with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), Elsa Serfass, lost her life on 11 June.
In the northeast, the threat of violence spilling in from Darfur is ever-present. During the first week of June, armed militia on horseback and camels attacked a non-governmental organisation (NGO) helping local communities with desperately needed water and sanitation.
UNFPA, WHO and UNICEF has been granted a total of $300,000 from the CERF to prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, amongst adolescents/youth in the conflict-affected zones of Ouham-Pendé, Ouham, Nana-Gribizi and Kémo. These zones represent more than 25% of the CAR population, with a high proportion of youths. In those districts, HIV prevalence is up to 15%. Recurrent armed conflicts have resulted in the destruction and looting of health and education facilities. The CAR youths, having no friendly space to attend on a daily basis, are at a risk of joining the armed groups where they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and STI/HIV/AIDS. Moreover, a deterioration of health services hampers population access to information and drugs for prevention or treatment. These regions have high population movement due to commercial cross-border activities with Chad and the DRC, thus further aggravating the risk of STI/HIVAIDS. This project will build and expand upon CERF funds received for 2006, and continue to sensitise youth on STI/HIV/AIDS and offer youth friendly services, including access to VCT. Youth tested HIV-positive will be referred to care centres formed by the Global Fund. Emergency preventive actions must also be developed with communities to sustain them.
With another CERF grant of $200,000, WHO will also institute a more decentralised presence to better provide medical care to displaced and vulnerable populations in the northern CAR. In order to reduce morbidity and mortality among vulnerable people in the most conflict-affected zones in northern CAR, WHO will improve the timely monitoring of health and nutrition trends, coordinate in identifying and filling critical gaps and provide effective health services to this vulnerable displaced population.
WFP will continue to provide Humanitarian Air Service (HAS) in the CAR with its CERF grant of almost $600,000. Road travel in the CAR is dangerous, difficult and expensive. During the five-month rainy season, most road travel is restricted or comes to a full stop in key towns (Paoua, Markounda, Ndele, Birao and Mbokok) because of poor road conditions. Distances between the main areas of humanitarian activities are long, with roads in a poor state and the security situation imposing a high risk on overland travel.
The demand for the UN-HAS has increased dramatically in recent months; in response, a second aircraft will be added to the fleet and the service will be extended through June 2008. This second aircraft will allow for a 12-seat Cessna Caravan C208-B to serve the closest destinations and the shortest airstrips while a 10-seat Beechcraft King-Air will service distant locations. The extension in service will provide the humanitarian community with safe and efficient travel for the foreseeable future. The UN-HAS will add Gordil, Kabo, Batangafo, Ouadda, Ouadda Sjalle and Boguila to the existing itinerary.
UNHCR’s grant of $205,000 will provide protection to IDPs. While in November 2006, the humanitarian community estimated that there were 150,000 IDPs, as of June there were 212,000 IDPs, with another 78,000 people who have sought refuge in Chad, Cameroon or Sudan’s Darfur region. IDPs continue to suffer from violence and human rights violations committed by militant and other armed groups in the north of the country. Several missions to conflict-affected areas have confirmed protection to be the priority area in the humanitarian response to the crisis in northern CAR. In this regard, UNHCR’s monitoring activities revealed that only 12% of more than 900 families interviewed said their houses had not been damaged, half of the families said they had suffered up to ten security incidents, half of the interviewed families had neither access to local markets nor to primary healthcare, and even less families’ children had access to education.
In view of these developments, UNHCR substantially revised its IDP protection project for 2007. UNHCR will establish a protection presence in Paoua and Kaga-Bandoro, two key locations in conflict-affected areas, in order to achieve the following objectives:
- Sensitise key stakeholders, including members of the armed forces, on IDPs’ rights and the Guiding Principle on Internal Displacement, with a view to gaining their support, mitigating further violations of IDPs’ human rights and alleviating their suffering;
- Based on a close monitoring of the protection situation through a network of humanitarian observers, individual follow-up (basic healthcare, trauma counselling, household assistance, legal and social counselling) is provided to survivors of violence, including those of SGBV;
- Provide material assistance to IDPs with specific needs, particularly survivors of violence.
UNICEF’s grant from the CERF will be used for four projects, one of them detailed above. The other three projects related to the control of EPI preventable diseases epidemics, prevention of child recruitment, protection and assistance for family and community-based reintegration of demobilised children, and ater and sanitation response for displaced persons, returnees and other conflict-affected populations of regions three, four and five.
UNICEF will seek to prevent and control timely and effectively EPI preventable epidemics in the districts most affected by the recent armed conflicts. The national immunization coverage remains very low to prevent epidemics and reduce mortality and morbidity among children in the CAR despite important efforts to re-launch the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) (successful polio and measles campaigns, restoration of the cold chain, and accelerations of the routine immunization) in the wake of the devastating 2002-2003 armed conflicts.
In the targeted districts, 90% of children aged 6-59 months will be immunized against measles, 80% of child bearing women will receive a minimum of two valid doses of anti tetanus vaccine, and 80% of infant children will receive three valid DPT and polio vaccines.
The UNICEF project related to the prevention of child recruitment, the agency will provide protection and assistance for family and community-based reintegration of demobilised children in order to reduce all forms of violence and provide enhanced protection/reintegration to children affected by armed conflict. In this violent context, children and women are especially vulnerable and exposed to all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation. Child recruitment and use of children in hostilities have dramatically increased in the ranks of the UFRD and the APRD. Furthermore, access to basic social services (health, education, protection), fundamental to the realization of children’s rights and practical needs are interrupted. Only 26 children who participated in the 2002-2003 conflict were formally demobilized. The rest, estimated to be at least 1,000 children out of 7,600 demobilised adults, never benefited from any assistance or protection. UNICEF is negotiating with the two main rebel groups on the release and reintegration process of over 900 children presently associated to these groups. This project aims to reduce the impact of armed conflict against children, women and their communities, through preventive, advocacy, protection and community-based strategies.
UNICEF will seek the effective social reintegration of 1,000 demobilised child soldiers, ensure that State and non-state armed groups are aware of child protection standards during conflict, and that 40,000 girls and boys of the most affected areas of Vakaga, Bamingui-Bangoran, in the north of Haute-Kotto, Nana-Gribzi, in the north of Kémo, Ouham and Ouham-Pendé prefectures are able to attend schools and have a better protected environment.
In terms if the water and sanitation response for displaced persons, returnees and other conflict-affected populations of regions three, four and five, UNICEF will seek to reduce the risk of water born diseases among under five and school-aged children through provision of safe water and hygiene promotion. Recent upsurges in conflict have led to frequent displacement of the population into the bush. Here, inadequate water services and lack of sanitation has resulted in increasing prevalence of water-related diseases. In addition the service coverage in rural areas within administrative regions 3 and 5 is very low, ranging from 1% - 33% (General Directorate of Hydraulic, 2000). The proposed project will save lives and preserve health by making minimum quantities of clean water available for drinking and household use for at least 175,000 people. The project will also prevent the spread of water and sanitation-related diseases by establishing safe hygiene environments and promoting personal and domestic hygiene. Schools will be promoted as entry points to communities.
This project will ensure that at least 175,000 children living in programme coverage areas have access to and use safe water and sanitation facilities as well as ensure improved hygiene knowledge and practices within the communities and schools settings.
UNDP’s grant of $100,000 will support International Medical Corps to provide humanitarian assistance to conflict affected populations in the Vakaga prefecture, estimated total beneficiary population is more than 18,000 internally displaced people. The conflict has resulted in a breakdown of all basic services and the inability of health care providers to deal with war-wounded persons, or to address the increased morbidity caused by the lack of large parts of the population of access to adequate food, safe water, shelter and basic preventative care. IMS mobile clinics will provide primary healthcare services to displaced and conflict-affected populations. Mobile clinic services will be tie d into rehabilitated village health posts, in an effort to reconstitute the existing health system and reattach affected populations to the services available in their own communities.
With another $100,000 grant UNDP and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) will provide emergency health services in the Nana Gribizi Prefecture. The IRC began its emergency humanitarian in January 2007, and is now providing more than twenty thousand displaced individuals with life saving health, environmental health, gender based violence, distribution and education services. The IRC is providing essential operational and capacity building support to the Kaga Bandoro Hospital and to three MOH health facilities on the conflict-impacted axis between Kaga Bandoro and Ouandago. IRC will employ the CERF grant in order to cover critical gaps in existing health program funding and to expand short-term mobile clinic programs targeting conflict impacted villages within Nana Gribizi prefecture.
[Last Update: 27 September 2007]
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