Guerra in Centrafrica

La situazione è sempre peggio nella Repubblica Centrafricana, nelle cui regioni settentrionali si affrontano diversi gruppi militari costringendo ben 250.000 civili alla fuga. Chiaramente il Centrafrica risente dell'instabilità in Ciad e in Darfur. Attualmente, la regione transfrontaliera tra Ciad, Sudan e Centrafrica è il polo di crisi più grave in tutto il continente.

Severe' Violence Forces Almost 250,000 to Flee - UN

UN News Service (New York)
NEWS
September 29, 2006
Posted to the web October 1, 2006

Almost a quarter of a million people in northern parts of the Central African Republic (CAR) have been forced to flee their homes in recent months because of "severe levels of violence" perpetrated by armed groups, including Government soldiers, the top United Nations aid official in the impoverished country said today, warning of the regional impact of this unrest.

"What we've now seen is the forced displacement of over 150,000 people internally inside northern areas of the Central African Republic with a further 50,000 people who have fled north into Chad and 20,000 people who have fled west into Cameroon," said Toby Lanzer, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the CAR.

"So there is certainly a regional impact that the situation is having and paradoxically quite some concern that the situation in [neighbouring] Sudan and Chad - also very fragile, as you know - is having quite some bearing on the situation in the Central African Republic," he told reporters in New York.

Mr. Lanzer, who has been in the CAR for four months, said the Government acknowledges there are four armed groups operating in the north, adding that in total about one million people had been affected in recent months by "severe levels of violence perpetrated at times by these rebel groups, at times by members of the armed forces themselves."

Describing the situation in northern areas as "extremely serious" in humanitarian terms, he called for more international assistance to a country that is already one of the poorest on earth, with one doctor for every 90,000 people, one teacher for every 150 students of school age and where 15 per cent of people aged between 15 and 49 are HIV positive.

"So we have a humanitarian situation in northern parts and north-eastern parts of the Central African Republic (CAR) which is extremely serious and I think it merits the attention of the international community," he said, adding that the UN along with its partners were already stepping up their assistance programmes.

A consolidated appeal for the CAR is only around 50 per cent funded, said Mr. Lanzer. He also said that over the next three to four months UN agencies will really need to "try to stabilize the humanitarian situation" in the north to stop it destabilizing the whole of the country.

A report from Secretary-General Kofi Annan today on the UN Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa is raising similar fears about the situation in the CAR.

In the report, the Committee expresses "grave concern over the continued precarious security and humanitarian situation, notably in the northern areas of the country."

The Committee also encourages the Independent Electoral Commission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to press ahead with next month's run-off presidential election and concurrent polls for provincial assemblies.

The Committee is composed of 11 States: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.