UNHCR Needs $164 Million For 1.5 Million Displaced Persons In CAR
The displaced persons currently constitute one-third of the country’s population.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is soliciting $164 million to enable it “save 1.5 million displaced persons in the Central African Republic.”
The demand was made on Sunday during a virtual conference of the UNHCR and came on the heels of a new wave of displaced persons fleeing from violence-hit parts of the country.
According to the UNHCR office in CAR, the last violence in the country that began in mid-Dec. 2020 forced 1.5 million Central Africans to flee from their homes.
The number of displaced persons constitutes one-third of the country’s population of 4.7 million.
The UN humanitarian organisation revealed that from Dec. 2020 to Feb. 2021, not less than 201,000 persons had left the Central African Republic to Chad, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo due to violence.
Boris Cherhirkov, the UNHCR spokesperson in the Central African Republic, revealed that a little over 100,000 Central African Republic nationals are internally displaced.
“We would be constrained to reduce or interrupt vital assistance to the populations if the funds demanded are not provided,” the spokesperson declared.
The UNHCR said that it intends to use $35 million of the money demanded to fight against sexual violence and the registration and documentation of displaced persons. At the same time, 13 million dollars would provide shelter, and essential assistance and 24 million dollars would be used for health, nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation.
“This demand for such a big sum of money clearly demonstrates the level of vulnerability of the Central African Republic populations where the state is no longer able to provide even social assistance,” said a civil society activist who opted for anonymity for fear of reprisal from security forces
“These projections come as a maximal humanitarian alarm bell at a time when the state is only able to fight a war.”
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