CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR) / CHILDREN MALNUTRITION

UNICEF has appealed for almost US$2.2 billion to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance in 2014 to 85 million people, including 59 million children, who face conflict, natural disasters and other complex emergencies in 50 countries. In CAR, because of the fighting, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced across the country – many of them children, already suffering from severe malnutrition. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:04:00
• Production Date: 21 February 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: NUTRITION; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
• Geographic Subject: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
• MAMS Id: U140221c

Description

STORY: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC/ CHILDREN MALNUTRITION
TRT: 4:00
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SANGO/ FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: 14 – 18 FEBRUARY 2014, BOUAR, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Shotlist

1.Wide shot, burnt home
2.Close up, cinders of home
3. Wide shot, woman whose house has been burnt
4. SOUNBITE (Sango) Awa Tala:
“We are living in the bush now”
5. Wide shot, burnt house
6. Wide shot, Baoro Catholic Church
7.Wide shot, IDP woman and children
8. Close up, baby being breastfed
9.SOUNDBITE (Sango) Monique Nganga, 40 years old:
“Both communities have suffered. Whether it was during the Seleka or during anti-Balaka. Both Christians and Muslims have suffered to the same degree.”
10. Wide shot, Mpoko IDP site
11. Wide shot, IDPs at Military Airport site
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert McCarthy, UNICEF Emergency Co-ordinator:
“It’s a situation that has gone from bad to grave. We have tens of thousands of people displaced but moreover we have seen inter-communal tensions between Christians and Muslims communities as a consequence of frustration, a consequence of attacks and a sense of vulnerability, isolation, a lack of protection. So people are taking up arms they are emotional they are fearful and we’re seeing terrible things being done in which children are also being targeted.”
13. Wide shot, Muslim IDPs begin evacuation from Military Airport site
14. Wide shot, convoy leaving Bouar mosque site
15. Wide shot, women waving goodbye to convoy
16. Close up, woman praying, prayer beads
17. Close up, AU badge
18. Wide shot, women and child at mosque camp
19. Close up, Plumpy Nut
20. Med shot, woman collecting Plumpy Nut at mosque site
21. SOUNDBITE (French) Wilfried Komoyo, Director, Bouar District Hospital:
“Malnutrition will be a great concern because with all the crisis that we went through here in Bouar, people were displaced due to this displacement some kids will not have treatment for malnutrition and they will become sicker than they were before.”
22. Wide shot, Mosque site
23. Wide shot, woman collecting Plumpy Nut
24. Med shot, toddler
25. Wide shot, IDPS and MISCA at Mosque IDP Site
26. Wide shot, tank
27. Wide shot, UNICEF Vehicles
28. Wide shot, UNICEF distribution of soap and jerrycans
29. Medium shot, IDP woman collecting soap and jerrycans
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert McCarthy, UNICEF Emergency Co-ordinator:
“We’ve been using the mobile team approach since we resumed operations in late June and the whole idea is to get people on the ground who can, basically validate immediate actions that need to be taken so we’ve used this approach to reopen health facilities to see to the resumption of water services, support to hospitals and also to identify children that require special protection.”
31. Wide shot, French troops vehicles
32. Med shot, crowd with anti-Balaka man
33. Wide shot, boy stacking old cassettes
34. Close up, boy stacking old cassettes

Storyline

Ghostlike villages lie in cinders near Bouar in north-west Central African Republic.

This woman’s home was destroyed just days ago by the anti-Balaka militia because her husband is Muslim. “I’m living in the bush,” she says having had to flee for safety with her eight children.

Side by side at this church, thousands of Muslims and Christians take refuge after continued retaliatory fighting between the ex-Seleka and Anti-Balaka.

SOUNDBITE (Sango) Monique Nganga, 40 years old:
“Both communities have suffered. Whether it was during the Seleka or during anti-Balaka. Both Christians and Muslims have suffered to the same degree.”

This is a chronic and complex humanitarian crisis characterized by brutal ethno-religious violence.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert McCarthy, UNICEF Emergency Co-ordinator:
“It’s a situation that has gone from bad to grave. We have tens of thousands of people displaced but moreover we have seen inter-communal tensions between Christians and Muslims communities as a consequence of frustration, consequence of attacks and a sense of vulnerability, isolation, a lack of protection. So people are taking up arms they are emotional they are fearful and we’re seeing terrible things being done in which children are also being targeted.”

While violence has been committed by all groups, now, Muslim communities are fleeing the country for safety.

A convoy of some 2000 people leaves this displacement site to go to Cameroon.

Those who cannot join, must wait in hope for their turn -- under the protection of African Union, MISCA, peacekeepers.

But weeks of being virtually trapped in this site has taken its toll -- 21 children were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition.

SOUNDBITE (French) Wilfried Komoyo, Director Bouar District Hospital:
“Malnutrition will be a great concern because with all the crisis that we went through here in Bouar, people were displaced due to this displacement some kids will not have treatment for malnutrition and they will become sicker than they were before.”

Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced in the country –loss of agricultural lands, food shortages, and lack of access to basic services – means that thousands of children are expected to suffer from severe and moderate acute malnutrition this year - a major challenge for humanitarian actors in the coming months.

In Bouar, as in other hard-to-reach regions, insecurity persists and poor infrastructure hampers relief work so while agencies work to upscale relief efforts UNICEF mobile teams work with partners on the ground to quickly assess and act on situations as and when they happen.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert McCarthy, UNICEF Emergency Co-ordinator:
“We’ve been using the mobile team approach since we resumed operations in late June and the whole idea is to get people on the ground to validate immediate actions that need to be taken so we’ve used this approach to reopen health facilities to see to the resumption of water services, support to hospitals and also to identify children who need special protection.”

French troops have joined MISCA peacekeepers in Bouar to disarm the region. The hope is that this will bring respite to violence here and now, but so many challenges await and the biggest of all will be to try heal a very fractured and traumatized society.