Agencies plan food aid to bandit-prone areas

UN agencies in the Central African Republic (CAR) began a meeting on Friday in the capital, Bangui, to put in place aid strategies for thousands of people in the bandit-hit northwestern provinces of Ouham and Ouham Pende. "We are meeting with NGOs this Friday to find a way of providing people in the affected zones despite the difficult conditions there," Bruno Geddo, the UNHCR delegate to the CAR, had sad on Thursday. Officials of the UN World Food Programme, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as well as those of several NGOs are attending the meeting chaired by Malika Akrouf, the head of the UN Development Programme in CAR. OCHA Public Information Officer Maurizio Giuliano told IRIN on Friday that the NGOs represented included COOPI, CARITAS, MSF, MSF-Holland and MSF-Spain, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the French Red Cross, the national Red Cross Committee and Action Against Hunger. The aid to be provided comprises food and non-food items. The acting UNICEF representative, Mamadou Baldet, said materials to help people in northwestern CAR had been ordered, following a report by MSF-Holland. "The first consignment of the materials are [due] to arrive in Bangui this Friday," he said. The materials include tents, jerry cans, blankets and water purification tablets, which will be taken by NGOs to the affected people. The new measure by the UN agencies will pave the way for relief operations in the northwest, where fighting between the army and bandits has displaced thousands of civilians - some of whom have fled to neighbouring Chad. On 3 February, the WFP regional information officer, Marcus Prior, expressed concern over the inability of the organisation to go into the area due to growing insecurity. "There is food to be distributed to the affected population but we are unable to access the zone [the northwest]," Prior had said. The plight of civilians in Ouham and Ouham-Pende has caught the attention of the nation's politicians. Sources close to opposition political parties say that underground negotiations, led by Lamine Cisse, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General to the CAR, are going on with the hope that they would lead to talks between President Francois Bozize and the opposition in order to find a solution to the crisis. Ten bandits were killed and six others captured two weeks ago when the regular army, backed by troops from the regional economic body, CEMAC, battled armed men in Pahoua; a town close to the border with Chad. The army later carried out sweeps in the area, causing civilians to flee into the bush and into Chad. At least 4,000 people are reported displaced, according to humanitarian officials. Seven civilians have been killed as a result of the army sweeps in 10 villages, including Bodjomo, which is considered strongholds of the former ruling Mouvement de liberation du people Centrafricain (MLPC) party.