Government body stops medical sales to DRC hospitals

Following a Central African Republic government ban on medical sales to neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Italian charity, COOPI, has begun providing supplies from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, an official of the charity told IRIN on Friday. The charity’s representative in the CAR, Massimiliano Pedretti, said that the CAR's Unite de Cession de Medicaments (UCM) stopped its sales on Tuesday, exposing hospitals in Zongo, just across the Oubangui River from Bangui, and Libenge, 150 km to the south, to acute drug shortages. "It was more logical and cheaper to supply the two towns' hospitals from Bangui than from Kinshasa," Pedretti said. An aircraft chartered by the charity had brought 300 kg of drugs for each of the two Congolese towns on Wednesday, he said. He added that since 2000, when COOPI's EC-supported medical programme in northern Congo started, the charity had been buying drugs from the UCM. He said the programme benefited at least 140,000 people. Since May, the charity has been implementing a similar programme in northern CAR, where civil war from October 2002 to March 2003 largely destroyed the health system. The CAR decision to halt the flow of medical supplies comes after Bangui closed its border with the Congo on 21 August, prohibiting transportation of goods and people across the River Oubangui. However, the government has not provided a reason for the border closure.