Sudan/Chad/CAR: Focus on relief and humanitarian groups
Medecins Sans Frontieres had a story the other day in its Facebook feed on the Central African Republic, reminding me that I’m overdue to post an update on the interlocking set of conflicts surrounding Darfur and its neighbors. For this particular round up, I’m going to focus particularly on what’s being reported by humanitarian groups, although I may link a few other stories.
In fact, there are stories coming out of the Central African Republic that have nothing to do with the humanitarian crisis there. Kenya Airways has launched direct flights to Bangui, the largest city in the Central African Republic. An exiled former president is returning to the CAR to stand in the presidential elections slated for 2010.
The humanitarian situation there, though, continues to be severe. Medecins Sans Frontieres reports
South-western Central African Republic (CAR) currently faces a serious nutritional emergency. The crises in the mining industry, on which many of the region inhabitants depend, has been the last straw for an already highly vulnerable population.
Alerted by the local authorities, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have opened four feeding centres in one month in Carnot, Boda, Nola and Gamboula and implemented a number of outpatient treatment programmes in the area. The first assessments have revealed severe malnutrition rates way over the emergency threshold in some areas….
The UN MINURCAT force stationed in Chad has repaired water pumps in Guereda, and national polio vaccinations have just been carried out.
A three-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign began on 30 October throughout Chad, including in the east where according to the World Health Organization the rate of routine immunizations is among the weakest nationwide.
On 27 October lab results confirmed six new polio cases, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Chad in 2009 to 30. Two regions are newly infected, Wadi Fira in the east and Batha in central Chad….
On a less happy note, an International Committee of the Red Cross staff member was abducted last night in eastern Chad.
Recent Chad stories unrelated to humanitarian aid efforts include a celebration of friendship between the presidents of Chad and neighboring Cameroon and a story about the peacefulness of the border between Chad and Cameroon.
A Douala tabloid a few weeks ago thought it had found the scoop of the year, when it “discovered” that a “Chadian” had been sitting in the Cameroon National Assembly over the years. As the search for the truth continues, it must be emphasized that Cameroonian boundary regions with neighboring countries, from east to west and from north to south abound with ethnic communities that stretch beyond international boundaries.
Chad is no exception. Chad is Cameroon’s northern neighbour with which it shares a boundary of over 500 kilometres. Since Chad’s independence on August 11, 1960 cooperation with Cameroon has been very steady and growing with each passing year….
Top fashion designers are making dolls to fund a vaccination effort in war torn Darfur. Meanwhile, South Sudan has been hit by an outbreak of kala azar (also known as visceral leishmaniasis), a parasitic disease transmitted by the sand fly.
The joint UN-African force has called on one of the major rebel groups in Darfur to stop obstructing its work. Meanwhile, Obama’s Sudan strategy has been hailed by African policy experts.
… The Obama plan calls for a greater dialogue among the United States, international partners and Sudan to end the Khartoum government’s support of attacks in Darfur and spur implementation of the CPA while pressing the Sudanese to get tougher on terrorism. The Obama strategy includes potential sanctions if certain benchmarks to progress that remain classified are not met.
Herman Cohen, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, lauded the strategy, telling America.gov, “The Obama administration is implementing a very pragmatic policy toward Sudan.” …
More links:
ReliefWeb’s latest complex emergency report on Chad.
Reliefweb’s latest complex emergency report on Sudan.
Leading LRA rebel commander Charles Arop surrenders to Ugandan army? (The Lord’s Resistance Army has moved between Uganda, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as it engaged in a long standing guerilla war, so, though it formed to fight the Ugandan government, the surrender of an LRA commander would affect other countries as well.)