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STORY: GENEVA / CAR HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 02:33
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 01 JUNE 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT
RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
01 JUNE 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Najat Rochdi, Humanitarian Coordinator in CAR (OCHA):
“Since the past three weeks, the signs are very clear. Violence in the Central African Republic has entered a new spiral of escalating conflict and the situation is quickly deteriorating. In the last two weeks alone, over 100,000 people have been newly displaced, families running for their lives, leaving everything behind. More than hundred people have been killed and hundreds have been wounded, and as a humanitarian, we have not been able to protect them.”
4. Close up, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Najat Rochdi, Humanitarian Coordinator in CAR (OCHA):
“If insecurity and violence continue to force people away from their homes, the total figure of Internally Displaced People in the Central African Republic will soon go over the half million people we have there inside of the country to add to the almost half million who are outside of the country, for the first time in three years which is a source of concern for us because it means we are going back actually to the level we had in 2013. And yet we only have 24 percent funding.”
6. Close up, hands typing
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Najat Rochdi, Humanitarian Coordinator in CAR (OCHA):
“Today nearly half of the population rely on humanitarian assistance to survive meaning that the country does not have half of its population to contribute to its reconstruction. One in five Central Africans is a refugee or internally displaced; two out of three do not have access to drinking water and basic sanitation. Two out of three do not have access to basic health services. And those who were wounded did not have the treatment and some of them died because of that. Nearly one in two is food insecure in a country where you just throw a seed and then it will grow up on its own because the soil is really, really fertile. Tens of thousands of children bear the consequences of malnutrition and untreated diseases and thousands of women and girls are exposed to gender based violence.”
8. Close up, journalist
9. Wide shot, journalists
Nearly a quarter of the population of the Central African Republic (CAR) has been displaced due to a recent upsurge in conflict in the area, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today (1 Jun).
Najat Rochdi, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the country told journalists that renewed clashes between armed factions in the region, and targeted attacks on civilians and humanitarian aid agencies have greatly compromised the already precarious stability of the CAR.
Speaking to the media in Geneva, Rochdi said that “since the past three weeks, the signs are very clear. Violence in the Central African Republic has entered a new spiral of escalating conflict and the situation is quickly deteriorating. In the last two weeks alone, over 100,000 people have been newly displaced, families running for their lives, leaving everything behind. More than hundred people have been killed and hundreds have been wounded, and as a humanitarian, we have not been able to protect them.”
Over the past two weeks alone, more than 100,000 people have been newly displaced in the resurgent violence across the Central African Republic. The new emergencies escalate the already immense needs for sustained humanitarian assistance which stem from a four-year long crisis between the Seleka rebels and the ‘Anti-Balaka’ militias that has ravaged the country. The Seleka and other groups have since splintered which has resulted in further violence.
Rochdi reiterated that “if insecurity and violence continue to force people away from their homes, the total figure of Internally Displaced People in the Central African Republic will soon go over the half million people we have there inside of the country to add to the almost half million who are outside of the country, for the first time in three years which is a source of concern for us because it means we are going back actually to the level we had in 2013. And yet we only have 24 percent funding.”
New humanitarian needs created by the recent crisis are adding to an already dire situation and over half of the population of the CAR requires humanitarian assistance to survive. Rochdi said that this means that “the country does not have half of its population to contribute to its reconstruction. One in five Central Africans is a refugee or internally displaced; two out of three do not have access to drinking water and basic sanitation. Two out of three do not have access to basic health services. And those who were wounded did not have the treatment and some of them died because of that. Nearly one in two is food insecure in a country where you just throw a seed and then it will grow up on its own because the soil is really, really fertile. Tens of thousands of children bear the consequences of malnutrition and untreated diseases and thousands of women and girls are exposed to gender based violence.”
Latest UN data indicates that over half of the population of CAR needs humanitarian assistance to survive, yet only 25 percent of the nearly US$ 400 million requested funding has been received.
