The European Union and the United Nations along with the World Bank and the African Development Bank are about to provide Central African Republic with aid package totalling 496 million USD in order to stabilize short-term security via immediate humanitarian aid. Donors met in Brussels on Monday (20 January) and agreed to set aside almost 300 million USD on humanitarian relief including restorations of elementary services and cash-for-work programs. The rest of the budget should cover other urgent needs that arise as a result of escalating violence.
According to Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the UN and its partners are making efforts to handle the humanitarian consequences of the CAR conflict. In her opinion, the package that they are providing is unique as it links its agenda to the broader stabilization package as well as reconciliation efforts. The joint funding of the partners should provide full funding for a 100-day intervention program.
Brussels additionally decided to provide extra humanitarian support worth 45 million euros this year. It is planning to pay for other needs of the region that include sanitation, water, health, shelter and protection from violence. Last year, the EU provided 76 million euros out of which 39 million euros were from the EU Commission. In 2012, the whole aid package was worth 20 million euros.
The director of emergencies at the Food and Agriculture Organization, Dominique Burgeon, described the situation in the CAR, the country of about 4.6 million people out of which about a half are children, as “pre-genocidal”. More than one million people are already thought to be displaced in addition to thousands having been killed since March when Muslim rebel grouping Séléka took the power. The seizure of power by Muslims in turn triggered retaliatory attacks by Christian militants. Only last month, more than a thousand people were killed in Bangui, the country’s capital city.
