Central African Republic

Background
The recent rebel attack on the capital of its neighboring country, Chad, has endangered CAR’s already unstable environment, as civilians are threatened by the potential movement of rebel forces into the northeastern part of the country. Despite significant diamond and timber reserves, CAR is one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world. Unstable since gaining independence from France in 1960, the landlocked nation has seen eleven attempted coups in the past decade alone. The current government has little power outside the capital, Bangui, and rebels in the countryside frequently raid villages for food and livestock, sometimes raping and killing inhabitants. The northern part of the country suffers the worst of the violence, and the continuing attacks on villages there have depopulated entire areas. An estimated 90,000 refugees have already fled across the border into neighboring Chad and Cameroon, and an additional one million need emergency assistance. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs puts the average life expectancy for Central African Republicans at just 40 years.

What IMC is Doing
In February 2007, International Medical Corps (IMC) completed a strategic assessment of the humanitarian needs in the Bamingui-Bangoran and Vakaga Prefectures of Northeast CAR. The assessment team found inhabitants in the region’s most remote and violent areas in desperate need of assistance. IMC documented high rates of malnutrition and appalling living conditions — far worse than that is considered emergency levels. Recent nutritional screenings found the severe malnutrition rate among children six to 59 months old to be as high as 8 times the international standard for emergency, or up to 37 percent.

With up to 95 percent of CAR’s population having fled their homes to live without shelter, clean water, medical assistance, or sufficient food, International Medical Corps is reaching out to the thousands in need of emergency assistance through mobile medical units that service the region’s most underserved villages and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. During the rainy season, it is not unusual for IMC staff to travel two to three days by motorcycle or bike to access isolated populations in need of basic care and services. As the conflict in CAR continues to displace many of its inhabitants, IMC works to reduce the strain on the resource-poor region through primary health care, maternal and child care, expanded immunization, nutritional screening, and therapeutic and supplemental feeding to help the victims of the long-forgotten conflict in Northeast CAR get back on their feet again.