Humanitarian Situation

In an effort to improve the protection of civilians caught in the middle of armed conflict, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for more robust measures stating that the failure of combatants to fully respect international law has caused “appalling levels of human suffering.” In the Secretary-General’s latest report, he has set forth the task of meeting five critical challenges facing the protection of civilians in armed conflict: enhancing compliance to international law, enhancing compliance by non-Sate armed groups; enhancing protection through more effective and better resourced UN peacekeeping and other relevant missions; enhancing humanitarian access: and enhancing accountability for violations.

Security Situation

The Union of Democratic Forces for the Rally (UFDR) base in the Central African Republic’s north east town of Birao was attacked again on June 21st.  This follows the previous attack on June 6th, which has been attributed to ethnic clashes.  The attack has resulted in at least ten dead, many wounded, and over a hundred homes burnt to the ground. MINURCAT, the mandate of the UN mission in the Central African Republic and Chad covers the town of Birao, providing protection for humanitarian staff, armed forces, and the former rebel group the UFDR.

Victor Angelo, head of MINURCAT, held an urgent meeting with government officials of CAR to discuss the current security situation, at which he stated “MINURCAT re-iterates its commitment to provide security for civilians and humanitarians in CAR’s north east.  Our meetings here have included discussion about the Central African government’s commitment to a stronger presence in the north east, a presence which will help to mitigate the violence as well as facilitate conflict resolution.”

Humanitarian

Refugees continue to arrive in the remote village of Daha in south-eastern Chad, fleeing ongoing insecurity in the northern Central African Republic (CAR). A group of 130 CAR refugees reached safety in Chad over the weekend after crossing the river bordering the two countries. The UN have reportedly registeredover 6,800 CAR refugees in two sites near Daha village. A further 2,500 new CAR refugees are staying in the Chadian village of Massambaye, a second entry point about 125 km east of Daha. Both villages are located about a kilometer from the volatile Chad-CAR border. The majority of the recent arrivals are women, children and elderly people. In Daha, refugees told UNHCR they fled Kounde village in northern CAR, where fighting between rebels and government troops continues. They said more people were still hiding in the bush in CAR for fear of being attacked or killed, and were trying to reach safety in Chad. Refugees say they are unwilling to return to their homes at this point due to the ongoing insecurity in northern CAR. There are already 56,000 refugees from the CAR in five camps in southern Chad. In eastern Chad, over 250,000 Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region are hosted in 12 UNHCR-run camps.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced that it needs $1.1 million to address the humanitarian needs of women and children in the Central African Republic. In its report published on 25 March UNICEF stated over 1 million people had been and continue to be affected by violence. The people are said to be in desperate need of emergency food, non food items, medical assistance, water, sanitation and shelter interventions. The report noted that thousands of children require immediate treatment against malnutrition and other infectious diseases. Despite the recent all-inclusive political dialogue held in Bangui on the 8 to 22 December 2008 aimed at restoring calm, the beginning of 2009 has seen an upsurge in violent clashes between the government and rebel forces which has led to an increase in displacement. The recent two-day civil unrest in Bangui, involving protests at the killing of a police commissioner by Presidential Guards in March, is a good example of the speedy deterioration of the security situation which might contribute to the immediate breakdown of an already fragile situation. The formation of new rebel groups such as, the Patriotic Convention for Justice and Peace (CPJP) in January pushes the idea of stability and peace further away from the Central African people.

Security

A rebel group in the Central African Republic said its troops had clashed with army soldiers on 20 March in the country's north. It was reported that the violence lasted for two hours in the northeastern Ndele region. One of the world's poorest countries, the Central African Republic has been racked for years by insecurity, with rebel groups, bandits and government troops blamed for widespread criminal activity. The CPJP rebels recently called for a "political dialogue to end the crisis," and the dissolution of the current government.

Cambodia will contribute troops to U.N. peacekeeping forces in Chad and the Central African Republic, marking the poor Southeast Asian country's second military mission abroad in three years, the prime minister said. The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen did not specify the number of Cambodian troops or the date of their departure. The decision to send troops to the region was based on a request from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The United Nations recently took over peacekeeping duties in the both Chad and the Central African Republic. Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the Cambodian contingent would consist of noncombat forces and would perform only humanitarian duties.

In April 2006, Cambodia sent 135 soldiers to help U.N. peacekeepers clear mines in war-torn Sudan.That same year, Hun Sen rejected U.S. requests for the deployment of Cambodian troops in Iraq. He said he questioned the overall legitimacy of the war in Iraq and that it remained too dangerous for Cambodians to operate there.

Security

Ongoing violence in the Central African Republic has prompted the U.N. Security Council to support a measure for a new peacekeeping unit in the country. The violence, including armed groups terrorizing the north of the country and ongoing practices like the recruitment of child soldiers, led to a recommendation from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Officials said the new unit would provide "assistance for elections, government reforms and demobilization efforts, along with the facilitation of continued national dialogue," according to a news release.

On 12 April more than 20 people were killed when farmers and traders fought over cattle at a livestock market near the capital of Central African Republic, a hospital official said. The dispute concerned the ownership of cattle stolen by highway robbers over a week ago but later recovered from the bandits and brought to the market just outside Bangui. Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast natural resources. It has endured years of civil conflicts and banditry is rife. Fernand Koumanda, head of a cattle breeders' association, said the fighting started when some traders at the market claimed that they owned 56 of the 174 beasts initially stolen, enraging some cattle farmers. The levels of violence in this incidented are explained by Bernadette Say, minister for social affairs, "I've just come from the hospital. The bodies and injured I've seen are horrific. Cracked heads, slit throats, bodies with arrows in them, others riddled with bullets, hacked by machetes. I've never seen anything like it in my life.” Health Minister Andre Nalke Dorogo appealed on national radio for doctors and health workers to go to the hospital as quickly as possible to try and save lives.

Humanitarian

Tens of thousands of civilians from the Central African Republic have in recent years fled to southern Chad to escape banditry and fighting between the government and rebels. UNHCR staff in Daha have registered more than 8,000 refugees from the Central African Republic. A further 2,500 have been registered at Massambaye, located 125 kilometres east of Daha. The refugees in Daha, mostly women, children and the elderly, have received a warm and generous welcome from locals. They live in two sites near the village and are able to use the health and education facilities. The arrival of so many people in eastern Chad's Salamat region has caught the local authorities and humanitarian aid workers by surprise and shown how the conflict in CAR has spread.

The latest wave of refugees decided to flee after hearing that a neighbouring village was attacked and 25 people killed. The refugees all originate from 18 villages along the road from Ndele to Ngarba in north-east CAR, where fighting flared between rebel tribes and the armed forces more than three months ago. Although the government has made peace overtures, the area remains volatile and people are still fleeing. UNHCR has sent an emergency team and aid supplies to Daha, including plastic sheeting, mats, blankets and cooking utensils. Simply getting aid to the area is an immense logistical challenge as Daha is located almost 1,000 kilometres south of the UNHCR hub of Abeche in eastern Chad. During the May-October rainy season, Daha will be inaccessible by road and the aid flow will be reduced. The United Nations estimates that more than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes in the Central African Republic since 1999 as a result of the ongoing violence.

Security Situation

According to various sources, Police Chief Samuel Samba was seriously injured and later died in hospital when members of the Presidential Guard beat him in an attempt to disarm him during an intervention on 5 March in the capital Bangui. As the injured police chief was being transferred to hospital that afternoon, witnesses at the scene took to protesting, blocking traffic by putting up barricades and burning tyres. The following morning when news of his death was announced, more protesters took to the streets of the Miskine district and its outskirts. The army dispersed the crowd by firing live rounds and local medics confirmed 13 people sustained bullet wounds and were being treated in hospital. Calm was reported to have returned to the city by the end of the day. The Minister of State for Communication and Government spokesperson, Cyriaque Gonda, announced the opening of an inquiry to find the perpetrators of this crime.

On 10 March a top United Nations envoy told the Security Council that the recent long-awaited multi-party talks in the Central African Republic (CAR) have provided a window of opportunity to make strides towards consolidating peace in the land-locked nation. François Lonsény Fall, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, told the Council, several agreements had been reached, including the establishment of a broad-based government, a commitment to hold elections in 2009 and 2010, and the setting up of an independent electoral commission. Three committees have been established in the areas of politics and governance; security and armed groups; and socio-economic questions. The security committee, for its part, has dealt with the issues of implementing security sector reform, restructuring the national armed forces and combating the proliferation of small arms, the envoy said, while the socio-economic committee is focusing on putting into place a poverty reduction strategy, reforming public finances and reforming the management of national resources. In spite of the numerous security and political setbacks, Mr. Fall stressed that the December inclusive dialogue has provided an occasion to bring stability to the country, which has been beset by widespread fighting and armed banditry in recent years, with some 200,000 Central Africans have been either internally displaced by the fighting or forced to live as refugees in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

Humanitarian Situation

On 11 March, roughly 100 youths were caught posing as rebels in the Central African Republican town of Dessikou, hoping for cash and other benefits offered to fighters demobilising under a peace process, the government said. The group of 100 youths told Reuters there were from the APRD and some from the UFDR. Communications Minister Cyriaque Gonda confirmed the youths admitted they had come from Bangui posing as ex-rebels to profit from the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration process which will be starting soon. Nineteen-year-old Bonaventure Gomtoua, one of those exposed as a fraud, told Reuters: "We were pushed to do this because in Bangui we are faced with unemployment and poverty."  Progress on the peace process between the country's government and a number of rebel groups began has been slow, with one rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Central African People (FDPC) rejecting the government's peace deal last month and announcing a new rebel alliance, saying the government had broken a number of its promises to the group. Regional instability and wars in neighbouring Chad, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo have worsened internal conflicts in the landlocked former French colony, which has attracted some foreign investment in its rich mineral reserves.