CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR) JOINT RESPONSE

About the crisis

More than half the country’s population – some 3 million people – is currently in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The crisis has severely damaged the social fabric, and election violence in 2015 further aggravated the situation. Now, with a new democratically chosen government in place, and a peace agreement that was signed in February 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups, there are great hopes to stabilise the country. At the same time, the Central African Republic sees alarmingly low rates of basic services, frequent human rights violations and war crimes, with armed groups destroying houses and harvests. All of this causes insecurity among the people and massive displacement. The humanitarian crisis in this country remains complex.

The Dutch Relief Alliance response

Five member organisations of the Dutch Relief Alliance provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations, people that are affected most by the crisis. Through our collaborative approach, our humanitarian assistance in the Central African Republic targets internally displaced persons, host families and communities and returnees, including marginalised minorities such as the Peulh (Mboro) and Muslims.

In the 5^th year of the response in the CAR, 2019, our assistance reached a total of 110.330 people in the provinces of Ouham and Ouham Pendé, through:

• Enhancing the livelihoods of people through supplying them with seeds, tools and training, but also providing the most affected people with emergency food support;
• Providing access to safe and sufficient water for domestic use;
• Enabling populations to practice safer hygiene behaviour, including the rehabilitation of WASH facilities in public areas;
• Improving the houses of recently displaced households;
• Activities focused on protection, in particular child protection and protection related to victims of sexual and gender based violence;
• Supporting the livelihood opportunities of young adults and adults through trainings in income generating activities and through cash for work activities.

Photo credits: Elorry Mahou (Cordaid)