UN Agencies Collaborate to Provide Food & Security to CAR

By Lorraine Farquharson Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 2014 (IPS) - Earlier this week, the United Nations exerted rigorous efforts to resume distribution of food, full protection and increased  security assistance to the estimated 100,000 civilians who have fled their homes over the past weeks due to increased splurges of uprisings in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, cautioned the Security Council that CAR’s situation seems to be escalating into unrelenting violence among religious groups and causing further destabilization of the entire region.

The  World Food Programme (WFP), in collaboration with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and many non-governmental organisations NGOs – as well as community leaders – have organized secure distributions of food and other assistance to refugees who are currently sheltering at the country’s Bangui Airport after raiders, brandishing machetes, ransacked and stole staples from the WFP food distribution site three weeks ago.

Civilians have set up camps at the airport using bed sheets, cardboard, tarpaulin and other improvised items to build temporary housing, while necessities such as mosquito nets, mattresses, blankets and soap were offered by the UNHCR. The WFP offered rice, oil, sugar and other food items, and since the

Civilians Ci restart of food distribution, roughly 5,500 people have received food rations. The 10-day plan to ensure that all the displaced will receive food and necessary care.

UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani expressed the urgent need of the strengthening of the international community and its response to protect and assist fleeing civilians – especially women, children and the disabled. “The flare-up of crises elsewhere should not affect the scale of the response which is urgently needed in the Central African Republic,” Beyani said.

This most recent act, along with increased amounts of armed attacks between ex-Séléka and Christian anti-balaka militias, has heightened the already intense amount of fear in civilians. The clashes have killed more than 1,000 people since December and have also put a disgruntling halt to the WFP’s food distribution efforts, due to its perilous security issues.

UN agencies and its partners underwent extreme difficulties gaining contact with dispersed civilians who were in dire need. So far, roughly one million civilians have had to flee from their homes and another two million are in need of humanitarian aid.

Denise Brown, West Africa’s Regional Director of the WFP, expressed deep appreciation for the joint efforts of the international community that allowed food distributions at the airport to resume. “We have overcome a significant challenge due to the efficient collaboration of UN agencies,” Brown said. “We very much hope that [better] security conditions) will allow them to continue.”