Central African Republic is about the same size as France, but with less than km of paved roads. You can imagine the access issues that poses to UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies trying to get emergency aid quickly to where it is most needed.
Just to give you an example. One-and-a-half weeks ago, a convoy from UNICEF headquarters in Bangui headed off to set up a new field office in the far east of the country — a town called Zemio over km drive from the capital. The roads are in bad condition, and they are dangerous. Our drivers would take four days to get there overland, and require a military escort.
But delays with the escort left the drivers stranded along the way; and they will only arrived with all the supplies in Zemio on Friday — two weeks later. There are tracts of Central African Republic where there is no humanitarian presence, because they are too dangerous or too remote. But these are exactly the places where UNICEF needs to be if we are to live up to our mission to help the most disadvantaged children: those who are hardest to reach. Their aim is to respond within 15 days of being alerted about an outbreak of violence or displacement.
The teams target their response based on the findings of these assessments; and quickly organize distributions, using supplies and funding they have received in advance. Next week, one of the rapid response teams will carry out distributions in two villages near Bambari, which has been a violent hotspot since June.
They will provide emergency kits like the ones distributed in Batangafo, as well as build emergency latrines for about families who have recently been displaced after attacks on their villages. And they build the base for longer-term assistance. Madeleine Logan is a communications specialist who has been reporting from CAR since January this year. By Radoslaw Rzehak. By Madeleine Logan. Your email address will not be published.
