UNICEF anti-poverty programme launched

The UN Children's Fund and the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) have signed a US $3.5-million-dollar agreement for programmes aimed at reducing poverty among women and children, according to a senior UNICEF official. "The current plan of action concerns 11 projects, whose activities have been realistically planned and which cover five priority areas defined by the organisation's Middle Term Strategic Plan, namely girls' schooling, an anti-HIV/AIDS campaign, immunisation, protection against exploitation and discrimination, and the promotion of children's development," Aboudou Adjibade, the UNICEF representative in CAR, said in a Radio Centrafrique broadcast on Tuesday. He was speaking during the signing ceremony for the agreement, presided over by Minister of State Gabriel Jean Edouard Koyambounou. Adjibade said UNICEF would continue supporting the government's efforts to reduce poverty, and protect children and women affected by the government's battle to defeat rebels in parts of the country. During fighting that followed the unsuccessful coup attempt on 25 October 2002 by former soldiers led by the Gen Francois Bozize, the former army chief of staff, women and young girls were raped by fighters of the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo, who had been brought into the country to help shore up the government's defences. At least 100 rape victims have been registered, and humanitarian workers have said many others refused to disclose their experiences for cultural or religious reasons. UN experts and Medicos Sin Fronteras are providing rape victims with medical and psychological care. The fighting has also prevented the start of a nationwide vaccination campaign, which was scheduled for mid-December 2002, with the result that many children have remained vulnerable to diseases. Health services in rebel-held zones have run out of medicines, giving rise to epidemics. In this respect, MSF announced in December that meningitis had broken out in Mobaye, 300 km east of the CAR capital, Bangui. Moreover, the country's epidemiological services have detected about 60 cases of measles in Ouham Pende, a province in the northwest. A UN humanitarian assessment mission, comprising eight agencies, is due to tour rebel-held zones later this month.