NGO begins drugs distribution in war-ravaged northwest

An Italian humanitarian NGO, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), has begun a medical intervention programme in the northwest of the Central African Republic, where no aid has been organised since October 2002, an official told IRIN on Monday. A COOPI team took drugs to two regional hospitals between Wednesday and Friday, COOPI's representative in the country, Massimiliano Pedretti, said. He added that from the hospitals, the drugs would be further distributed to smaller health facilities in the region. The drugs taken to the hospitals at Bozoum and Paoua, respectively 384 km and 506 km northwest of Bangui, the capital, are expected to last three months, he said. The NGO's team also sent drugs to Ngaoundaye, 600 km northwest of Bangui, on the CAR-Cameroon-Chad border, Pedretti said. He added that medical activities in the area had continued despite the conflict between rebels and government troops from October 2002 until March 2003. The war ended with a coup on 15 March when Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse. Pedretti said the Ngaoundaye residents stayed in the town during the war, and that a religious community kept a local health centre running. The health centre and 26 other health facilities in the town received the drugs distributed by COOPI. In a map presented to humanitarian actors in early June, military authorities listed Ngaoundaye and several other towns in the north as insecure. Pedretti said that despite the absence of military and administrative authorities in most towns, the situation seemed to be "acceptable". "We consider security in zones in the north of Paoua and Bossangoa [305 km north of Bangui] as not yet satisfactory," he added. He said that about 70 percent of Paoua residents and 50 percent of those in Bozoum had returned to their homes. Most residents of Bocaranga, another town 510 km northwest of Bangui, had returned to their homes as gendarmes and administrative authorities were present, he added. COOPI’s medical intervention in the northwest is part of a larger EC-supported emergency programme worth €1.79 million (US $2.06 million) to rehabilitate and resupply health facilities in nine of the country's 16 provinces. The NGO has been implementing the programme in the northern Ouham Province since early June, with its base in Bossangoa. "We are opening the Bozoum base later this week," Pedretti said.