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High-level meeting calls for urgent humanitarian action in the Central African Republic

Countries
CAR
Sources
OCHA
Publication date

(New York, 25 September 2013): European Union Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, United Nations Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called for urgent action to meet humanitarian needs in the Central African Republic (CAR) at a High-Level Meeting in New York today.

Participants agreed that the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, with the entire population of 4.6 million people affected. In recent weeks the number of internally displaced people has almost doubled to 400,000. They concluded that a significant increase in humanitarian funding was essential, and that a rapid improvement in security was a precondition for getting urgently-needed assistance to the worst-affected people.

"The conflict in the Central African Republic has created a desperate humanitarian crisis in a country where people already face a daily struggle to feed themselves,” said Commissioner Georgieva. “There are consequences for the region as a whole. The CAR is at the centre of an immensely fragile region of Africa. Neighbouring countries all have a stake in what is happening in the CAR.”

"This year the European Commission has given 20 million euros of humanitarian aid to CAR - a 150 per cent increase from last year in response to the deterioration brought about by the fighting. This has been the world's most forgotten crisis. I am confident that the world is finally waking up to a crisis which has been ignored for too long."

“There is a real opportunity for the international community to make a difference in the CAR,” said Under Secretary-General Valerie Amos. “We must invest in stability and recovery now. Failure to act will prolong and exacerbate the appalling conditions people are enduring and lead to additional threats to peace and security in this very fragile region.”

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.