The United Nations approved a $10 million emergency funding for Chad-based relief operations. This will provide aid for about 210,000 refugees and returnees from neighbouring war torn Central African Republic.
In a statement from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday, the funding will help four southern regions bordering the Central African Republic that have been marked by deterioration in food security following withdrawal of relief partners as a result of lact of resources.
The ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic began in December 2012 when a successful coup by a rebel group referred to as Séléka, predominantly Muslim, forced President Francois Bozize out of power. Following his flee from the country, the leader of the rebel group Michel Djotodia took over power and declared himself president in March 2013.
Fights between the rebel group and Bozize supporters worsened afterwards. Reprisal attacks staged by Christian groups which referred to themselves as anti-balaka (the invisibles) drove the divide along cultural and religious lines even deeper. The country has been largely destabilized with over 400,000 internally displaced persons and thousands of fatal casualties as cases of torture, rape, extra judicial killings and human rights abuse heighten.
There seems to be no end in sight for the conflict as treaties and agreements signed in the past by affected groups have been violated so far. Following France’s announcement of withdrawing their troops which had been reduced drastically since the conflict escalated in 2013, the UN successfully voted to extend the mission by adding more man-power to the troops deployed to the region.
With millions of people in dire need, the aid is one of the many dire moves by the UN to sustain peace keeping activities in the region aimed at stopping the activities of the militia factions at war against each other and bringing stability back in the region.
