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STORY: UN / CAR HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 05:47
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT OCHA FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The country has some 6 million people. And today, about 2.3 million people are in need, of which 1.3 million people are targeted by the humanitarian community for support. We say that one in every five Central African Republicans is displaced. The numbers are a bit - stark, I would say - but it's difficult to juxtapose progress in security, progress in stability, with me saying, at the same time, there are needs.”
OCHA - 05 MAY 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
4. Wide shot, showing okra and delegation talking
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It's clear that things are changing. However, as is also very clear, the progress can quickly unravel if attention is not sustained and if funding is not sustained. We've had a good funding outlook for the Central African Republic for years - 95 percent funded here and there. Last year we had a bit of a drop. We were less than 40 percent funded of the appeal. This year we've received only 17 percent of the 268 million we're looking for.”
OCHA - 05 MAY 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
6. Wide shot, Edem Wosornu at the FAO farm
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“I was in Zemio. I saw a few sites. One of the sites was being run by ALIMA, an international NGO, with some funding from the Humanitarian Pooled Fund - some 5 million, of which 2.4 million was used to support what we call mobile clinics. A mobile clinic that comes twice a week to the settlement because people cannot come into the town for risk of their lives, for fear of their lives. This mobile clinic by ALIMA supports some 60 to 70 people every time they come in a day - so, 140 or more a week. Not too bad for the funding that they receive.”
OCHA - 30 APRIL 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
8. Wide shot, running malaria test
9. Wide shot, handing prescriptions
10. Med shot, mobile pharmacy
11. Wide shot, a sick boy and his big sister waiting for the results
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We also saw a fantastic project done by the Food and Agriculture Organization - a project that, they say, teach a man how to fish and you sustain him; feed him with one fish and it kind of runs out very quickly. FAO's resilience project is quite fascinating to see. People are farming their lands, when there's security, when there's peace obviously, farming their lands and sustaining themselves with the produce. There's no food distribution in that part. And that is one of the things that I take my hat off to the humanitarian coordinator and the team for - what they've done in Zemio, once, of course, there's peace and stability and security.”
OCHA - 05 MAY 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
13. Various shots, harvesting and showing okra
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“I also saw - I mean, you don't hear it a lot; you hear it in neighboring DRC, but not in the Central African Republic - where you hear of a lot of cases of gender-based violence, mainly by the armed militia or armed actors in the area. Significant numbers reported. UNFPA shared the reduction in the reporting - not because it's not happening, but because we don't have the ability, as humanitarians, to be all over the country.”
OCHA - 05 MAY 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
15. Wide shot, beneficiaries talking
08 MAY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director, Crisis Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“I spoke with our partners. They are worried that if we don't sustain the response in health infrastructure - health in particular - communicable diseases are very, very rampant, very clear. And I often come back from these missions, and I say: ‘Health has no borders.’ The country is surrounded by a lot of fragile states. I think we need to do all we can to support the communities on the ground to sustain themselves - from health to education, from education to food security, and everything else that we cover.”
OCHA - 05 MAY 2026, ZEMIO, CAR
17. Wide shot, implementing partner talking to Edem Wosornu
“One in every five Central African Republicans is displaced,” said OCHA's Edem Wosornu after a field visit to the country, describing the numbers of people in need as “stark.”
Briefing reporters in New York City today (08 May), Director of Tthe Crisis Response Division, at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Edem Wosornu said, “The country has some 6 million people. And today, about 2.3 million people are in need, of which 1.3 million people are targeted by the humanitarian community for support. We say that one in every five Central African Republicans is displaced. The numbers are a bit - stark, I would say - but it's difficult to juxtapose progress in security, progress in stability, with me saying, at the same time, there are needs.”
Wosornu added, “It's clear that things are changing. However, as is also very clear, the progress can quickly unravel if attention is not sustained and if funding is not sustained. We've had a good funding outlook for the Central African Republic for years - 95 percent funded here and there. Last year we had a bit of a drop. We were less than 40 percent funded of the appeal. This year we've received only 17 percent of the 268 million we're looking for.”
Turning to conditions on the ground from her visit to Zemio, she said: “I saw a few sites. One of the sites was being run by ALIMA, an international NGO, with some funding from the Humanitarian Pooled Fund - some 5 million, of which 2.4 million was used to support what we call mobile clinics. A mobile clinic that comes twice a week to the settlement because people cannot come into the town for risk of their lives, for fear of their lives. This mobile clinic by ALIMA supports some 60 to 70 people every time they come in a day - so, 140 or more a week. Not too bad for the funding that they receive.”
She added, “We also saw a fantastic project done by the Food and Agriculture Organization - a project that, they say, teach a man how to fish and you sustain him; feed him with one fish and it kind of runs out very quickly. FAO's resilience project is quite fascinating to see. People are farming their lands, when there's security, when there's peace obviously, farming their lands and sustaining themselves with the produce. There's no food distribution in that part. And that is one of the things that I take my hat off to the humanitarian coordinator and the team for - what they've done in Zemio, once, of course, there's peace and stability and security.”
On gender-based violence, Wosornu noted that, “a lot of cases of gender-based violence, mainly by the armed militia or armed actors in the area. Significant numbers reported. UNFPA shared the reduction in the reporting - not because it's not happening, but because we don't have the ability, as humanitarians, to be all over the country."
She concluded, “I spoke with our partners. They are worried that if we don't sustain the response in health infrastructure - health in particular - communicable diseases are very, very rampant, very clear. And I often come back from these missions, and I say: 'Health has no borders.' The country is surrounded by a lot of fragile states. I think we need to do all we can to support the communities on the ground to sustain themselves - from health to education, from education to food security, and everything else that we cover.”
