UN Fund To Benefit Victims Of Unrest In Africa

UN fund to benefit over 1 million victims of unrest in Central African Republic

1 October 2008 – More than a million people struck by violence in the Central African Republic (CAR), including 110,000 who have been uprooted from their homes, will receive life-saving assistance under funding announced today by the new United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund.

“The pooled fund will help to make humanitarian action in the country more efficient and better coordinated,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said of the $2.5 million allocated to 16 priority projects focusing on health care, access to water, the survival of infants and the young, and aid to help those displaced to return home.

“Thanks to the fund, aid organizations on the ground can channel the money where it is most needed and respond to a breaking emergency faster than ever,” added Mr. Holmes, who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

CAR has been hit by violence in several regions from rebels and a spill-over of instability in the north from neighbouring Chad and Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, and the new funding will target 110,000 displaced people, 83,000 more who recently returned to their devastated villages and 1 million others affected by the unrest.

Overall, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have launched a $114 million aid programme for CAR in 2008, of which donors have so far funded 80 per cent.

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