Bangui – The United Nations on Wednesday said a surge of attacks on humanitarian organisations in the Central African Republic has forced some to suspend their activities in the poor and conflict-torn country.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for the CAR, Denise Brown, said in a statement that two organisations suspended their work following four incidents in a week where they suffered “armed attacks against their teams”.
The decision will affect more than 46 000 vulnerable people in terms of health, gender-based violence and the protection and maintenance of camps for displaced people, she added.
Between January and May this year, one humanitarian worker was killed and 16 injured in 69 incidents, according to the United Nations.
The statement said staff were violently treated and had their personal belongings stolen in most of the four incidents cited.
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In one incident, armed men seized humanitarian aid at a distribution site, depriving 230 displaced families of urgently needed assistance.
The United Nations and NGOs regularly accuse both sides of abuses against civilians and attacks on humanitarian workers.
Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said a soldier had shot dead one of its employees at his home in a region where the Central African state, supported by Russian paramilitaries, is battling rebels.
Brown called on all parties to respect their obligations according to international law and give a free passage to humanitarian organisations.
One of the poorest countries in the world, the CAR has been wracked by violence since a civil war broke out in 2013.
Fighting fell back in 2018 but many parts of the country remain deeply troubled.
Nearly one in two of the population of around 5.5 million was in a situation of “acute food insecurity” last year, according to UN figures.
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Source: AFP
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