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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / HUMANITARIAN UPDATE
STORY: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC / HUMANITARIAN UPDATE
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: UNAIDS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 20 FEBRUARY 2014, BOSSANGOA, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
1. Wide shot, Sidibé and Amos getting off the plane
2. Wide shot, Sidibé and Amos greeting people at the IDP camp on the Catholic mission of Saint Antoine de Padoue
3. Wide shot, group of women singing to welcome the delegation
4. Wide shot, meeting at the IDP site
5. Close up, women following discussion
6. Wide shot, Sidibé talking to people at the IDP site
7. Wide shot, Sidibé looking at women cooking food
8. Wide shot, IDP camp and Sidibé walking
9. Wide shot, IDP camp in a school called Liberté where 1 200 Muslims are living
10. Wide shot, women wearing veils
11. Wide shot, Sidibé greeting men at IDP camp
12. Wide shot, Sidibé waling in IDP camp
13. SOUNDBITE (French) Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director:
“We saw that people are living completely separately, the Christians are in one place and the Muslims are in another. The people are no longer living together. This is creating very serious problems of social cohesion and it shows that the state has completely dissolved and that there is a big problem at the level of institutions. There is no access to services, there are no more health services, education isn’t there and it’s really a very serious problem we are living right now.”
19 FEBRUARY 2014, BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
14. Wide shot, Sidibé and Amos meeting with religious leaders
15. Wide shot, Sidibé and Amos speaking
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Monsignor Dieudonne Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui:
“We are speaking in the name of all the people who are still living in abandoned sites and don’t have any recourse. We are asking that a solution is found on the international level so that security returns, so that Central Africans can receive their salaries and so that cohesion returns and each one of us can rebuild this country that we all love.”
17. Wide shot, Sidibé speaking with religious leaders
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Ismaël Naffi, Imam of the Boro district of Bossangoa:
“The anti-balaka are fighting against the government.”
19. Med shot, Sidibé with with Archbishop of Bangui, Monsignor Dieudonne Nzapalainga and the Imam of Bangui, Oumar Kobine Layama
A UN humanitarian delegation warns of worsening conditions for internally displaced people in Central African Republic. There is also growing concern over the safety of women and girls as there are an alarming number of reports of sexual attacks in IDP sites.
The political and military crisis in the Central African Republic is also obstructing humanitarian efforts and endangering the already limited access citizens have to essential health services.
United Nations and Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé flew to Bossangoa in the northwest part of the Central African Republic on 20 February with Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos and other senior high-level officials.
Bossangoa has suffered a wave of sectarian violence and the city which once had some 50,000 residents is now nearly empty as people have left their homes to escape the violence between Muslims and Christians. Now most of the city’s former residents live in two separate sites—one for Muslims and the other for Christians.
The delegation visited internally displaced persons sites for Muslims and Christians.
During his visit, Sidibé said “we saw that people are living completely separately, the Christians are in one place and the Muslims are in another. The people are no longer living together.”
He added “this is creating very serious problems of social cohesion and it shows that the state has completely dissolved and that there is a big problem at the level of institutions. There is no access to services, there are no more health services, education isn’t there and it’s really a very serious problem we are living right now.”
A day earlier (19 Feb) in Bangui, Sidibé met with religious leaders who are seeking reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.
After the meeting, Monsignor Dieudonne Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui, said “we are speaking in the name of all the people who are still living in abandoned sites and don’t have any recourse. We are asking that a solution is found on the international level so that security returns, so that Central Africans can receive their salaries and so that cohesion returns and each one of us can rebuild this country that we all love.”
Prior to the start of the current crisis, the country was already struggling with its AIDS response and the ongoing violence is making the situation even more difficult.
According to the country’s authorities 125 000 people were living with HIV in 2012, of whom 15,000 were receiving antiretroviral therapy.
Since the violence began, two-thirds of people living with HIV on treatment have fled their homes and are no longer able to access the medicines and care they need. There is growing concern that the interruption in treatment will cause a resistance to the life-saving drugs, making future care difficult.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.
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