CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC -- THOUSANDS RISK STARVATION IN MISERY-STRICKEN NORTH-WEST

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC -- THOUSANDS RISK STARVATION

IN MISERY-STRICKEN NORTH-WEST

NEW YORK, 27 March (OCHA) -- Up to 50,000 people in the Central African Republic are at risk if food aid does not reach them within weeks.  Over half of them are believed to be internally displaced persons (IDPs), living in the forest without food supplies, adequate medical care or shelter.  The United Nations and other humanitarian actors urgently need funds in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

The affected population is in a strip of land in the north-west of the country bordering Chad.  “Between the town of Boguila and the border, all villages were empty, and even authorities had left the area”, said Souleymane Beye of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who returned from the area last week.  The provinces concerned, Ouham and Ouham-Pendé, were among those most affected by warfare in 2002-2003, when a chronic structural crisis turned into a complex humanitarian emergency.  “Thousands of people risk starvation, if we do not act very fast -- for which we need funding from our donors.  We will need four and half million dollars, to feed the target group of 50,000 people during six months and prevent humanitarian tragedy”, said the World Food Programme (WFP) Representative in Bangui, Jean-Charles Dei.  Malnutrition in the country is believed to be very high, although exact figures are not available.  “Over 20 per cent of Central Africans die before the age of five, mostly due to treatable diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infections”, said World Health Organization (WHO) Representative Léodégal Bazira.

Following frequent security incidents that intensified since December 2005, food scarcity is rapidly increasing.  In areas where 80 per cent of people survive thanks to small agricultural activities, villages have been attacked and looted, thousands displaced to the forests, and many fields destroyed or burnt.  “Thousands of people, including women, children, and the elderly, live in the forest and are forced to eat wild roots, often poisonous over the long term, to stay alive.  Those foodstuffs might help their immediate survival, but do not respond to their need for a healthy diet.  Many, especially children and the weakest, will certainly succumb to preventable diseases”, Mr. Dei acknowledged.

“If funding to address these needs is not received very soon, thousands of people could die”, said Maurizio Giuliano of OCHA.  Together with non-governmental organizations, the United Nations continues to request funding from international donors, to meet the critical humanitarian needs and save lives.  But funding to the OCHA-led humanitarian appeal remains extremely low.

For further information, please contact:  Maurizio Giuliano, Public Information Officer, Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Central African Republic, e-mail: giuliano@un.org, tel: +236-031825; Stephanie Bunker, Spokesperson, OCHA, New York, e-mail: bunker@un.org, tel: +1-212-9175126; Elizabeth Byrs, Spokesperson, OCHA, Geneva, e-mail: byrs@un.org, tel: +41-22-9172653.

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For information media • not an official record