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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / FOOD AIRLIFT
STORY: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / FOOD AIRLIFT
TRT: 2.25
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 FEBRUARY 2014, BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC/ RECENT
12 FEBRUARY 2014 - BANGUI AIRPORT – BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
1. Wide shot, WFP-chartered Boeing 747 cargo landing next to IDP camp at Bangui airport
2. Wide shot, airport vehicle drives in front of IDP camp
3. Close up, airplane wing with camp in the foreground
4. Wide shot, worker descending from plane
5. Med shot, cargo lift being raised next to plane
6. Med shot, cargo being moved from inside of the plane
7. Close up, cargo being moved
8. Wide shot, cargo lift being lowered
9. Wide shot, WFP food bags being loaded onto truck
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexis Masciarelli, WFP Spokesman in CAR:
“This is a lifeline that will allow us to bring, immediately, emergency food relief to the people who’ve been affected by the conflict here in the Central African Republic, and will also allow us to start pre-positioning food all across CAR before the rainy season starts and make most of the roads impassable.”
8 FEBRUARY 2014 - BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
11. Wide shot, Muslim men gather in PK12 neighbourhood, on the main road leading towards the north of the country
12. Med shot, luggage piled up
6 FEBRUARY 2014 - BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
13. SOUNDBITE (French) Nana Hamidou, Displaced Person:
“There is nothing, nothing for us here. We are only suffering – us, our wives, our children”
14. Med shot, motorcycle and other belongings loaded onto truck
15. Wide shot, WFP food supplies piled up outside WFP warehouse
16. Close up, WFP truck
17. Various shots, children waiting to receive a nutritious ready to eat food
18. Various shots, young women cooking in an alley of the Castors IDP Camp
19. Wide shot, internally displaced people inside Castors Church
20. Various shots, houses and shops looted at formerly bustling with Muslims traders and shoppers, now completely deserted
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) began to airlift food into the Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday (12 Feb) as the country faces a deepening hunger crisis with its roads too insecure to move in enough food for 1.25 million people affected by violence.
A WFP-chartered Boeing 747 cargo plane from Douala in neighbouring Cameroon landed in Bangui with 82 metric tons of rice. In total, 1,800 metric tons of cereals – sufficient to feed 150,000 people for a month – are due to arrive by air on about 25 flights over the next four weeks.
The food will be distributed to people forced to flee their homes. Food is also urgently needed to be pre-positioned across CAR before the start of the rainy season in May when many roads will be impassable. In addition, the annual “lean season” when hunger usually starts to peak is expected to start as early as this month.
“SOUNDBITE (English) Alexis Masciarelli, WFP Spokesman in CAR:
“This is a lifeline that will allow us to bring, immediately, emergency food relief to the people who’ve been affected by the conflict here in the Central African Republic, and will also allow us to start pre-positioning food all across CAR before the rainy season starts and make most of the roads impassable.”
Displaced Muslim families continued to pack their belongings and travelling to the Chad border by whatever means available.
SOUNDBITE (French) Nana Hamidou, Displaced Person:
“There is nothing, nothing for us here. We are only suffering – us, our wives, our children”
Insecurity has had a disastrous impact on WFP’s food stocks since the start of the year. At one stage, 51 trucks carrying WFP food were blocked at the Cameroon border for weeks. With escorts by troops from the African-led International Support Mission in CAR (MISCA), two large road convoys with WFP food aboard have arrived in Bangui but the route remains too unreliable to transport all the food assistance needed.
In addition, WFP has only received 27 percent of the nearly US$107 million it needs to assist 1.25 million people in CAR until August. Urgent new funding is needed for displaced people to receive food in the immediate and for some food aid to be pre-positioned before May.
With escalating violence since early December, WFP distributes food to all communities affected when secure access is possible. In December 2013, WFP and its partners distributed food to nearly 260,000 displaced and severely vulnerable people. In January, food assistance was provided to 280,000 people in the Bangui, Bouar, Bossangoa and Kaga-Bandoro areas.
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