Half population in CAR still needs humanitarian assistance: OCHA

Nearly half of the population in the Central African Republic (CAR) remain in need of humanitarian assistance despite progress made since the crisis in 2013, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday.

Nearly 400 million U.S. dollars are required to meet the needs of 1.6 million people in the CAR in 2017, according to the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2017 which complements the five-year national recovery and stabilization plan that was launched in Brussels on November 17.

"Humanitarian efforts are critical to save lives of people who are among the poorest and most forgotten on this planet," the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for CAR, Fabrizio Hochschild, told UN members in Geneva Monday.

Despite its considerable agricultural potential, CAR has some of the highest chronic malnutrition rates in the world -- almost one in two children -- due to ongoing insecurity, poor access to clean water and health care, as well as lack of seeds and tools. Maternal and early childhood mortality rates are also among the highest in the world.

Since September 2016, new conflicts have erupted in many locations leading to hundreds of civilian casualties and the new displacement of tens of thousands of war-weary people. One in ten remains a refugee, the majority in neighboring Cameron.

However, of the close to one million people who were displaced within the country in early 2014, almost half have returned home.

In this regard, Hochschild underscored that "humanitarian efforts are critical to stabilize the country while its pressing development, political and security needs are addressed". Endit