UNICEF donates drugs for 890,000 people in the east

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated drugs and medical equipment worth US $550,000 to be distributed among 890,000 people in six provinces in eastern Central African Republic (CAR). The UNICEF monitoring-evaluation project officer, Robert Ndamobissi, told IRIN on Tuesday that distribution of the drugs would begin on Friday. He said the first batch of the medical consignment, comprising basic drugs, medical materials, immunisation equipment, therapeutic food and water purification equipment, arrived on Monday in Bangui, the CAR capital. It had been transported by road from the seaport of Douala, Cameroon. Another batch was flown in on the same day from Copenhagen, Denmark, Ndamobissi said. "The drugs and equipment are to be distributed to the provinces of Kemo, Ouaka, Haute Kotto, Mbomou, Haut Mbomou and Basse Kotto, which have an estimated population of 890,000 inhabitants," Ndamobissi said. He said all the 125 health facilities in the six provinces had run out of medicine following months of fighting between rebels and government forces that isolated the east from the rest of the country. Since October 2002, rebels loyal to the current CAR leader, Francois Bozize, had fought government forces of former President Ange-Felix Patasse until 15 March, when Bozize seized power from Patasse in a coup. Ndamobissi said UNICEF would store vaccines in Bangui while awaiting the re-equipment of freezers in some of the health facilities in the six provinces. "The drugs will be given to patients free of charge for three months during which UNICEF would pay per diems for medical personnel," he said. More drugs are to be sent to the east in August, he said, but these would be sold to patients to enable the health facilities to re-stock their drugstores and pay daily stipends to medical personnel. Before the drug distribution begins, UNICEF will support seminars to be conducted by a religious humanitarian NGO, known as Association des Oeuvres Medicales et Sociales en Centrafrique (ASSOMESCA), to train those who would be supervising the distribution. Ndamobissi said ASSOMESCA would coordinate and supervise medical activities in the provinces. The UNICEF aid is the most significant since October 2002. It comes after Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) announced recently that it would wind up its emergency programme in CAR by the end of May. But the Italian NGO, Cooperazione Internationale, is expected to conduct a drug distribution effort in the north, with the support of the European Community Humanitarian Office. In the meantime, a humanitarian assessment mission, comprising officials from the UN World Food Programme, UNICEF and the UN Population Fund, is scheduled to tour the north of the CAR between 2 and 6 May. This will be the first such mission to the north since October 2002.