NGO postpones relief programme due to insecurity

Italian humanitarian NGO Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) has temporarily suspended its medical emergency programme in northern Central African Republic (CAR) due to insecurity, an official told IRIN on Monday. "The situation is still unstable for us to expose the lives of our workers and our equipment," Massimiliano Pedretti, COOPI representative in the CAR, said. He said that the programme, entailing the distribution of drugs to vulnerable populations, might begin in 10 to 15 days. The decision to suspend the EC-supported drug distribution in Ouham and Ouham Pende provinces was made on Friday after unidentified armed men stole a COOPI vehicle near Bossangoa, 305 km northwest of Bangui, the CAR capital, Pedretti said. He said he had contacted the EC, the UN and the CAR government regarding the growing insecurity in the region. The NGO has set up base at Bossangoa in Ouham province, and was due to establish the Ouham Pende base in Bozoum, 384 km northwest of Bangui. The COOPI team in Bossangoa had returned to Bangui, pending the restoration of security in the area. >> The move by the NGO comes just days after the EC announced its €1.79 million emergency programme to revamp and re-equip health facilities in nine war-affected provinces in the CAR. Six months of war from October 2002 to March 2003 between government and rebel troops adversely affected health facilities in the north. While those in the north were looted and damaged, those in the east ran out of drugs, as the area was cut off from its supply routes. Since taking power in a coup on 15 March, CAR leader Francois Bozize has failed to restore security in the north, discouraging thousands of displaced people from returning home. However, Pedretti said 70 percent of Bossangoa residents had returned to their homes after some soldiers were deployed in the area recently. No administrative authority is present yet in Bossangoa.