EC grants €1.79 million to rehab health system

The European Community has launched a €1.79 million emergency programme to revamp and re-equip health facilities in nine war-affected provinces of the Central African Republic (CAR), Laurent Silano, an official of the EC delegation to the country, said on Friday. The EC Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the European Development Fund (EDF) are supporting the work. Speaking on Friday at a news conference in Bangui, the CAR capital, Silano said the first of two EC programmes would be for the five northern and central provinces that were directly affected by fighting during the October 2002 to Macrh 2003 rebellion. The provinces are Ouham, Ouham-Pende, Nana-Gribizi, Kemo and Ombella-M'poko. Work in these provinces will cost €1 million and be executed by Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), an Italian humanitarian NGO, and the Association des Oeuvres Medicales pour la Sante en Centrafrique (ASSOMESCA). Silano said the EDF had disbursed €785,000 toward the second project in the four eastern provinces that were not directly affected by the fighting. But the provinces - Bamingui-Bangoran, Vakaga, Basse-Kotto, and Mbomou - had their supply routes cut and consequently experienced acute shortages of drugs and basic commodities. The six-month rehabilitation programmes are due to begin later in June. Silano said they would consist of rehabilitation of health facilities and equipment, the mobilisation of medical personnel and medical supplies, as well as the establishment of an efficient management system. The fighting had pitted the troops of CAR leader Francois Bozize against those of the man he ousted, President Ange-Felix Patasse, on 15 March. Much of the fighting took place in the north of the CAR where health facilities, schools and other public and private buildings were looted. Hundreds of thousands of people fled either to neighbouring Chad or into the bush, where many remain in fear of continued insecurity. Cut off by the fighting, health facilities in eastern CAR received no medical supplies. However, in May, the UN Children's Fund and ASSOMESCA started a three-month emergency drug resupply programme to health centres. Silano said that the residents from nine of the16 provinces, who are due to benefit from the programme, represent half of the country's estimated 3.5 million people. In mid-May, COOPI started its medical activities in Ouham and Ouham-Pende.