Central African Republic: Aid for more than 4,300 people in north-east
01-04-2014 News Release
Bangui (ICRC) – More than 4,300 people in the city of Ndélé, in the north-eastern part of the Central African Republic, received food and other basic necessities last week in a distribution carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with the Central African Red Cross Society.
The violence that has shaken the country since December 2012, and that has intensified over the past three months, has obliged large numbers of people to flee the capital Bangui and other parts of the country and take refuge, in the north in particular, many miles from their homes. "These new arrivals are increasing the burden of the crisis on already hard-hit communities," said Gabriel Mukalai, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Ndélé.
"The lack of security and the poor rainfall have not been conducive to agricultural output in the Ndélé area, and every kind of economic activity has suffered," he said. "Thanks to the residents' willingness to help, many of the people arriving here have been taken in by local families. Many others, however, have had to seek refuge in storage sheds or in deserted houses."
Some of the displaced who continue to flow into Ndélé transit through Chad. To help them resettle, the ICRC gave rice, cowpea, cooking oil, clothing, blankets and other items to 2,300 displaced people, and food to more than 2,000 residents who took in displaced people.
With the aim of improving and diversifying people's diets, the ICRC distributed vegetable seed to 350 farmers in February. It also provided five farmers' groups with mosaic disease-resistant cassava cuttings, which will be distributed onward to more than 1,500 people during the next planting season. Alongside the farm aid it is providing, the ICRC has been maintaining the water distribution network, which supplies 250,000 litres a day, since December 2012.
In the west of the country, which has also been affected by violence and population movements, the ICRC distributed household essentials to more than 13,000 people in Boyali, Yamian, Bogban, Gaga, Siango and Sangere in February and March.
For further information, please contact:
Germain Mwehu, ICRC Bangui, tel: +236 75 64 30 07