Despair and hope in the Central African Republic
Deadly violence in recent weeks has uprooted tens of thousands of people in the Central African Republic, with intermittent conflict wrecking livelihoods and forcing people from their homes. Despite a funding shortfall, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is increasing assistance to reach 100,000 newly displaced people. Here are some of their stories.
Ornella Princia Npanga coughs incessantly as she describes how rebels chased her family from their home in Alindao, a once-tranquil town in southern Central African Republic. They caught colds and malaria after days hiding out in the bush under pounding rains.
The family returned to find their tiny house looted and relatives dead. Today, ‘home’ is a wood-and-tarp shanty jostling hundreds of others pitched on the grounds of the local Roman Catholic church.
“We had nothing left to eat, until now,” says Npanga, a slender, fragile woman who sits next to tall bags of dried beans and fortified flour provided by WFP.
Nearby, young men carefully redistribute the food to a waiting crowd. Children play along narrow dirt paths abutting makeshift sewers. Women spread out cassava to dry on plastic sheeting. A few pound up greens they will cook up with the WFP rations.
The food was originally intended to feed about 14,000 people. But between planning and delivery, the number of displaced people has nearly doubled around Alindao, a small town of brick and thatch-roofed huts tucked into the lush plains of southern the Central African Republic. So the WFP rations must be stretched so everyone can eat.
“People are worried about their future,” says WFP food aid monitor Barnabe Ngedendji, on hand to oversee the Alindao distribution. “They can’t go to their fields to plant, they can’t carry on their normal lives. Everyone needs to go home, but that’s not possible.”
Those concerns are echoed by many others during a recent visit to areas hit by the latest wave of conflict rolling across the country, where nearly one in five citizens is displaced.
This is the rainy season, when farmers should be out planting their next harvest. But many fields along rutted dirt roads are a tangle of weeds. Entire villages stand abandoned and sometimes blackened by fire.
In the town of Bangassou, the local mosque lies in ruins. The fighting has displaced Christians and Muslims who once lived in harmony. Some have crossed the nearby Mbomou River to seek refuge in neighbouring the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Before we lived together and we shared what we had,” says Abdoulaye Aladji, who described how militia coming from elsewhere attacked the town and torched his family’s home. Other fighters were locals, he says. “We know who they are,” he adds. “They are our neighbours.”
“The situation is extremely complex,” says Abdoulaye Sarr, who heads WFP’s regional office in Bambari, about 350 km north of Bangassou. “It will take a lot of time and negotiation to find a solution.”
Around him, workers pile large bags of WFP food onto waiting trucks. The assistance will be dispatched to Bangassou, Alindao and other conflict-torn towns. Meeting the mounting needs is complicated by poor roads, rains and insecurity.
Many displaced people have sought refuge not far from the WFP office in Bambari, which has so far been spared from the fighting. The town’s bustling streets, where merchants hawk plastic sandals, petrol and second-hand clothes, offer a snapshot of a more hopeful, post-conflict future.
Many displaced people have sought refuge not far from the WFP office in Bambari, which has so far been spared from the fighting. The town’s bustling streets, where merchants hawk plastic sandals, petrol and second-hand clothes, offer a snapshot of a more hopeful, post-conflict future.
A few kilometres away, Eric Gbolilda and his extended family are hoeing land they have not farmed in two years. A trio of dogs snoozes under a hot sun.
“Before, there was too much insecurity to farm,” he says. “We lived off the food WFP gave us.”
This year, the Gbolilda family is planting beans, groundnuts and maize. They are thankful for the abundant rains and the calm. And they are hoping that both will prevail.
