Central African Republic, where nearly half the population is in need of aid, is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian funding shortfalls in the world, the United Nations warns
DAKAR (AlertNet) – Central African Republic (CAR), where nearly half the population is in dire need of aid, urgently requires international help as it experiences one of the worst humanitarian funding shortfalls in the world, the United Nations warned on Monday.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes in CAR due to violence at the hands of rebel groups and bandits, and the impact of rebellions in neighbouring countries.
So far this year, only 5 percent of the $134 million required for humanitarian assistance in 2012 has been received, but an estimated 1.9 million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid, the U.N. said in a statement.
Funding for such help dropped from $107 million in 2008 to $68 million in 2011 – less than half of the total required.
About 94,000 people are internally displaced around CAR, according to the U.N.
“Funding for basic humanitarian needs is urgently needed,” John Ging, the director of operations at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement. “Sadly, instead of an increase in funding to keep pace with the growing needs, we are now experiencing a severe reduction,” he added.
CAR, slightly larger than France, is one of the world’s poorest countries. Two thirds of its population does not have access to clean drinking water or health services. Where health facilities exist, there is only one health worker per 7,000 people, according to the U.N.
Situated at the heart of one of the most volatile regions in the world, where it shares borders with Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and South Sudan, CAR has been described by the European Commission as the world’s second-most vulnerable country after Somalia.
The government has little control beyond the capital Bangui, leaving several parts of the country under the control of various rebel factions, and foreign groups like the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which roams the southeast of CAR, looting, killing and abducting children.
Chad and CAR launched a joint military action in January to dislodge a Chadian rebel movement, the Front Populaire pour le Redressement (FPR), which has been based in north-central CAR since 2008, aid groups said.
Aid and rights groups have complained that, although the country’s situation is as precarious as in neighbouring DRC, Sudan and South Sudan, it does not get as much international attention.
“The Central African Republic tends to be like a black hole that no one sees,” said Charity Coffey, the country manager of humanitarian agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
More international interest and cooperation with the government would help the country tackle the challenges it faces with the support of development partners and humanitarian partners on the ground, she added.
The CRS runs programmes to improve food security for thousands of people in CAR, where two in five children under the age of five are chronically malnourished, and one in ten are underweight.
“Humanitarian workers are saving lives every day on the frontline of this forgotten and too often dangerous crisis,” said Ging who travelled to CAR last week. “We must do everything possible to mobilise an urgent re-engagement by the donor community,” he said.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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