UN mission to assess humanitarian situation in north

A UN mission left the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Bangui, on Monday to assess the humanitarian situation in the north of the country, where most of the hostilities took place between October 2002 and March 2003. UN System Coordinator Stan Nkwain is heading the delegation on the three-day mission to the towns of Bouca, 286 km north of the capital, Bangui; Bossangoa, 305 km north of Bangui; Paoua, 506 km northwest of Bangui; Bozoum, 384 km northwest of Bangui; and Bouar, 454 km northwest of Bangui. The UN coordination officer in Bangui, Silvia Chiarucci, told IRIN on Friday that the team would also comprise officials from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund. Apart from Bouar, which received thousands of displaced people from the north, all of these towns suffered from heavy fighting during the six-month rebellion led by former army chief-of-staff Francois Bozize, who ousted President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March. During a joint UN-NGO humanitarian coordination meeting on Friday, Nkwain said the mission would hold talks with local military and administrative authorities, the latter of whom have recently returned to their duty stations, which has encouraged the return of displaced populations and the resumption of economic, social and farming activities. This is the first high-level UN mission to tour the north since October 2002, when hostilities erupted. An earlier mission was unable to do so due to prevailing insecurity. So far, only humanitarian NGOs have been able to reach war-affected populations of the north, who have not yet received any food aid. WFP, which on 19 July resumed its food delivery to the CAR, has said that such populations would soon benefit from food aid.