France to provide €120,000 in aid of coup-attempt victims

The French government has announced it would allocate €120,000 in medical aid to the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been shaken by violence since the eruption of fighting on 25 October 2002. In a statement issued in Paris on Tuesday, France's Department of Foreign Affairs said the decision had been taken after consultations with CAR government authorities, local NGOs and UN agencies in the country. "This contribution will provide technical and logistical support for medicinal, surgical and gynaecological services of the Hopital Communautaire de Bangui, as well as for urban health centres located in the most-affected sections of the city of Bangui," the Quai d'Orsay said. "It will also assist in the provision of food aid, psychological counselling and legal support to people displaced or otherwise victimised by violence." CAR government forces have been trying to recapture positions seized by exiled former army chief of staff Francois Bozize's supporters since their unsuccessful invasion of Bangui in October. Government troops, backed by Libyan soldiers and rebels of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, flushed out the rebels.