Period covered by this Ops Update: 27 March to 27 April, 2013.
Appeal target (current): CHF 1,122,910
Appeal coverage: 30%;
Appeal history:
This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on 27 March, 2013 for CHF 1,122,910 for 6 months to assist 15,000 beneficiaries.
Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF): CHF 150,000 was initially allocated from the Federation’s DREF to support the national society to respond.
Summary: Following continued armed conflicts in CAR, thousands of CAR citizens sought refuge in neighbouring DRC. This emergency appeal was then launched to assist 15,000 CAR refugees in DRC. One week after the launching of the emergency appeal, intensified fighting that led to the overthrow of President Bozize in CAR caused security to deteriorate further. This security situation worsened in Bangui, following an attempt by the Seleka forces to disarm people in the neighbourhoods of Bangui. This has prompted an increase in the number of refugees in DRC, and thus, the number of people in need of assistance. Information available at this time indicates that the new refugees are from the 7 th subdivision of Bangui, precisely from Ouango, Ngaragba and Kassai villages, where armed conflict between Seleka forces and respective local population has left several deaths recently.
The fluid situation has caused some delays in implementation of the emergency appeal activities, and activities have been focused on support to the authorities in registration and initial instalment of new refugees and restoration of family links. Lack of land access from north has also caused delays in delivery of necessary relief items.
So far, two RDRT members have been deployed to the field to organize the assistance and conduct the necessary assessment of the situation. The process to recruit the operations manager is almost complete and the selected candidate will be deployed to the field in the days ahead.
Contributions have been received from the American Red Cross, the Danish Red Cross (Danish Government) and the Canadian Red Cross (Canadian Government), but additional funding is urgently needed to support the targeted beneficiaries who remain extremely vulnerable. Changes in the situation are being closely monitored, and a revision of the emergency appeal is planned in the coming months depending on the situation.