Mothers, children in north need urgent aid - UN team says

Mothers and children in war-affected northern Central African Republic (CAR) urgently need humanitarian aid, the head of an inter-agency UN Mission that toured the region from 11-14 June told IRIN. The official, Adam Ahmat, who is a population and development specialist at the UN Population Fund, said on Monday that there were "many cases" of acute malnutrition along the 305 km road from Bangui, the capital, to the town of Bossangoa. "Bossangoa regional hospital has one qualified nurse and one midwife," he said. In addition, he said, health and educational facilities had been looted and the population had no access to safe drinking water. But the mission distributed some drugs to health facilities all along the road to Bossangoa. The mission also included officials from the UN Children Funds (UNICEF), the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and Italian NGO Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), which reopened its Bossangoa base and resume an EC-supported health programmes in the north. COOPI had suspended its activities in the area for 15 days due to insecurity. The UN mission, which was escorted by government soldiers, visited Bossembele, Bouca and Batangafo, respectively 157 km northwest, 286 km and 386 km north of Bangui, the capital. During the six-month rebellion in which Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March, public and private buildings were looted and thousands of people were displaced. Ahmat said "40 percent to 50 percent of the population" was still hiding in the bush, emerging only in the mornings in search of food. Apart from some efforts by Medicos Sin Fronteras (MSF-Spain) - which ended its emergency programmes in the north -no humanitarian aid has been organised for the area due mostly to insecurity. The government has sent troops to some northern cities, but no civil authority has yet reported for duty to reassure the population. However, Ahmat said the first humanitarian operations might begin early in July. "We have collected enough data that will enable us to quickly lay down projects to assist those populations," he said. A similar UN mission is expected to tour the east of the country late this week. Although there was no fighting in the east it was cut off, blocking supplies of drugs and basic commodities.