UN takes food aid to Central Africans in Cameroon
(Adds quote on difficult roads, paragraph 6)
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations began distributing food aid on Wednesday to some 26,000 refugees from Central African Republic who have fled to neighbouring Cameroon to escape relentless attacks by rebels and bandits.
The refugees are mainly nomadic Mbororo cattle herders who have fled in waves since 2005 after their women and children were kidnapped for ransom and their livestock stolen by rebels in Central African Republic's remote northwest.
"Most of the Mbororos crossed the border on foot carrying their few remaining possessions, while a small number managed to save their cattle which continue to graze in Cameroon," the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a briefing note.
The UNHCR, which is coordinating a relief operation involving the U.N. World Food Programme and other agencies, said the refugees were living in more than 50 sites spread across thousands of square kilometres on the Central African border.
It estimated 15-18 percent of infants among the refugees were malnourished and that in some areas, the rate of infant mortality was six to seven times the threshold normally used to denote an emergency situation.
"This has been a major logistical challenge to reach so many people spread out across such a large area. Some of the roads are in very poor shape, too, and insecurity has been a constant worry," said the WFP logistics chief in Cameroon, Boubacar Diop.
INSECURITY
Central African Republic, a landlocked former French colony which languishes at the bottom of most human development indices, has suffered decades of instability and military coups since it won independence in 1960.
The insecurity has been heightened by the spillover of the conflicts in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region and in Chad, where Darfur-based Chadian rebels fighting President Idriss Deby have used Central African Republic as a staging post.
Humanitarian agencies estimate about 290,000 Central Africans have been forcibly displaced in the last 18 months, including 78,000 who have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is one of the few aid agencies operating in northwestern Central African Republic, where the United Nations suspended work after a French worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres was shot dead in June.
The UNHCR said there were fears approaching seasonal rains and insecurity caused by banditry on the border could hamper the distribution of food, blankets, mosquito nets and medicine. But it said the operation had begun on time on Wednesday morning.
"Distribution started at the Gbiti site, about 140 km (88 miles) east of Bertoua ... where there are 2,685 refugees, and at Ndokayo with 1,128 refugees," Jacques Franquin, UNHCR representative in Cameroon, told Reuters.
"Several truck loads of aid have already left from these localities to neighbouring sites," he said.
The U.N. World Food Programme was preparing 2,997 tonnes of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt to supply the refugees for six months while the U.N. children's agency UNICEF would take care of malnourished children, the UNHCR said.
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations began distributing food aid on Wednesday to some 26,000 refugees from Central African Republic who have fled to neighbouring Cameroon to escape relentless attacks by rebels and bandits.
The refugees are mainly nomadic Mbororo cattle herders who have fled in waves since 2005 after their women and children were kidnapped for ransom and their livestock stolen by rebels in Central African Republic's remote northwest.
"Most of the Mbororos crossed the border on foot carrying their few remaining possessions, while a small number managed to save their cattle which continue to graze in Cameroon," the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a briefing note.
The UNHCR, which is coordinating a relief operation involving the U.N. World Food Programme and other agencies, said the refugees were living in more than 50 sites spread across thousands of square kilometres on the Central African border.
It estimated 15-18 percent of infants among the refugees were malnourished and that in some areas, the rate of infant mortality was six to seven times the threshold normally used to denote an emergency situation.
"This has been a major logistical challenge to reach so many people spread out across such a large area. Some of the roads are in very poor shape, too, and insecurity has been a constant worry," said the WFP logistics chief in Cameroon, Boubacar Diop.
INSECURITY
Central African Republic, a landlocked former French colony which languishes at the bottom of most human development indices, has suffered decades of instability and military coups since it won independence in 1960.
The insecurity has been heightened by the spillover of the conflicts in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region and in Chad, where Darfur-based Chadian rebels fighting President Idriss Deby have used Central African Republic as a staging post.
Humanitarian agencies estimate about 290,000 Central Africans have been forcibly displaced in the last 18 months, including 78,000 who have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is one of the few aid agencies operating in northwestern Central African Republic, where the United Nations suspended work after a French worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres was shot dead in June.
The UNHCR said there were fears approaching seasonal rains and insecurity caused by banditry on the border could hamper the distribution of food, blankets, mosquito nets and medicine. But it said the operation had begun on time on Wednesday morning.
"Distribution started at the Gbiti site, about 140 km (88 miles) east of Bertoua ... where there are 2,685 refugees, and at Ndokayo with 1,128 refugees," Jacques Franquin, UNHCR representative in Cameroon, told Reuters.
"Several truck loads of aid have already left from these localities to neighbouring sites," he said.
The U.N. World Food Programme was preparing 2,997 tonnes of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt to supply the refugees for six months while the U.N. children's agency UNICEF would take care of malnourished children, the UNHCR said.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Campaign trail
Wall St. rockets higher
