Central African Republic: Situation Report, 21 Jun 2022 – Central African Republic

HIGHLIGHTS

• Humanitarian and development actors are helping internally displaced persons and refugees to resume normal lives
• With 50 per cent of the population not eating enough, CAR has one of the highest proportions of critically food-insecure people in the world.
• Access to drinking water: a daily struggle.
• Humanitarian actors assisted 447,000 people in the first quarter of 2022, 22,3 per cent of the target.
• The humanitarian community in CAR plans to provide multi-sectoral assistance to 2 million people in 2022. US$461.3 million will be required.

BACKGROUND

Finding durable solutions to displacement

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been ravaged by conflict and violence for decades. Many of the 4.9 million Central Africans have been traumatized by displacement, many multiple times. Despite the ongoing crisis, humanitarian and development actors are working hand in hand with the government to enable internally displaced persons (IDP) and refugees in CAR to resume normal lives, when circumstances permit.

Durable solution for displacement is the key term. It means moving away from displacement sites and dependency on humanitarian assistance. A durable solution, when achieved, means that people no longer need specific assistance and protection related to their displacement. Durable solutions include the voluntary return to their home or place of residence, resettlement to another part of the country or the integration in the host community. IDPs and refugees often need support in their efforts to find a durable solution. While humanitarian actors are doing good work to address the urgent and immediate needs of IDPs and refugees, the engagement of partners from the development, peace and security sectors is needed to implement durable solutions.

The integrated village

In Pladama Ouaka, a rural municipality located at about 10 km outside Bambari in the Ouaka Prefecture, former IDPs are currently starting a new life. From January to February 2022, 490 families moved to Pladama Ouaka with the support of humanitarian and development agencies and the local authorities. They had fled violence in different parts of the country and had lived at a displacement site in Bambari for years until it was burnt down in May 2021 and the IDPs were forced to leave the site. Displaced again, they settled in the Mosque, from where they were again evicted, and in different neighbourhoods in Bambari, where they lived in very difficult conditions and were also exposed to protection risks and disease outbreaks. In this dire context, a sustainable solution had to be found.

Local authorities identified Pladama Ouaka, a community of 50,000 people, as the ideal place for voluntary resettlement. Around 1,000 families agreed almost immediately to move there. In a first phase, 490 families have been supported in their resettlement by different United Nations agencies, including the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), different NGOs, including ACTED, AID, APADE, HOPIN, Humanity and Inclusion (HI), International Medical Corps (IMC), Intersos, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Tearfund, Triangle, World Vision and the local authorities.

The 10 km road from Bambari was rehabilitated to facilitate access and increase security through police patrols and four new neighbourhoods were demarcated in Pladama Ouaka. After an initial phase, where people moved to transitional shelters, houses are now being built with bricks and straw, one for each family with a toilet per household.

“I am so happy to have a house because a man without a house is considered a no one in the community,” says Ibrahim Hassan, who had been displaced for the past 10 years after fleeing from Kouango in 2012, and who is among the first of the 490 families preparing to move into the new brick houses in Pladama Ouaka. “This house and the large plot of land give me back the dignity I had before the conflict. They give me the strength to wake up every morning, get some food for my family and go about my business. My children’s future will be filled with joy and not pain, which makes me very happy”, the father of seven says.

An addition hangar was constructed at the local health centre and a school building rehabilitated, school supplies and didactic material were distributed to teachers and pupils and benches and tables for the school will follow. Two boreholes were drilled in the integrated village and a third is planned. Community management structures are also being reinforced to resolve conflicts and foster cohesion. Local authorities allocated farmland for the new habitants to support their livelihoods. Food security partners distributed gardening kits to help them grow vegetables.

Additional funds estimated at US $5 million are now required to assist the relocation and integration into the community of another 436 IDP families of 1,459 individuals, who have expressed their wish to move from Bambari to Pladama Ouaka, and humanitarian and development actors are currently mobilizing funds.

Resettling an entire town

In May 2022, a similar durable solutions project has been launched in Bria in the Haute-Kotto Prefecture, where the country’s largest IDP site is located. 37,000 IDPs live at a settlement 3 km out of town (PK3), in the commune that counts 75,000 habitants. Many of them have fled violence and insecurity from central Bria to the site in 2017 and 2018. Since 2021, the security situation in Bria has been continuously improving and state authorities, including the police, armed forces and justice have returned. Today, humanitarian and development partners and the prefectural authorities are supporting the return of the first 150 families from the PK3 site to two neighbourhoods in Bria. They provide building materials to rebuild the houses that are in ruins. Brick presses are available for people to make their own bricks and build their houses. Last year, the NGO OXFAM drilled 10 boreholes, which now benefit the newly returned. Although there is still much work to be done before durable solutions can be found for all 37,000 IDPs at the PK3 site – rebuilding houses, schools, wells and livelihoods – there is a sense of hope for a more normal life outside the cramped IDP site.

A major displacement crisis

The crisis in CAR remains a major displacement crisis. Almost one in four people is displaced. 658,000 people are displaced within the country and 738,000 CAR refugees live in neighbouring countries, mainly Cameroon and the DR Congo. New displacements are recorded every month, as well as return movements. The peak of recent displacement was reached in February 2021, when 742,000 IDPs were registered – 84,000 more than today – after violence erupted across the country following the presidential elections. Displacements continue as the conflict is not over. However, this does not stand in the way of durable solutions where the situation has stabilized, and is slowly contributing to the country’s recovery.