FAO distributes canoes to fishing community affected by conflict

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday began a distribution of canoes to fishing cooperatives in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), and surrounding areas, to help them recover from the consequences of a May 2001 coup attempt, an official told IRIN. Nicolas Bokossi, the FAO consultant for farmers affected by the coup attempt by a former president, Andre Kolingba, said on Wednesday that 23 of 127 locally made canoes were given to the fishing cooperatives. "We will distribute them as they are completed," Bokossi said. The distribution began two months after the FAO distributed materials to make fishing nets and hooks. A total of 43 cooperatives, each with some 20 members, are benefiting from the programme. The fishing community lives along River Oubangui, where fishing activities slowed down after the coup attempt. Kolingba’s uprising seriously affected the eastern and southern suburbs of Bangui, where most people from his Yakoma ethnic group live. While some fishermen were hiding or in exile, their equipment and canoes were looted by rebels from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, who came to CAR in 2002 to support the government of the time. FAO said it was also helping fish-farming cooperatives, which were likewise affected by the coup attempt. It said that in November it distributed hooks, basins and fish food to the cooperatives. In the coming weeks, the fish farmers would also be given highly productive fish types for their pools, Bokassi said.