Edem Wosornu (OCHA) on the humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic - Press Conference

Yes.
Great.
Thanks.
And we're very pleased to have with us someone who you all know very well, Edem Wosornu, the Director of OCHA’s Crisis Response Division, who was recently in the Central African Republic and is here to talk to you about that.
Welcome.
Thank you, Farhan Good afternoon, and it's always good to be back here when I've come back from a mission and to share my first impressions with you.
I was in the Central African Republic just Sunday to last night.
I came back to New York last night.
I was there as a first first time in the CAR.
I have been to DRC twice.
I've been to Sudan three times.
I've been in the neighborhood, I've been to Chad two times.
I hadn't gone to the Central African Republic for various reasons.
OCHA has paid significant attention to it.
Our Assistant Secretary-General was there six months ago.
We've had the OCHA Donors Support Group and my colleague, Lisa, there the year before that.
So it wasn't for lack of visits.
I think my first impressions of that country, a country that is clearly coming out of post conflict, a country surrounded by fragility, nonetheless, and therefore, a bit of a volatility that we need to acknowledge, a country that has gone through, you know, good stability, the security situation has changed quite a lot from what I understand, but there is fragility, a country that is determined to get itself out of crisis mode.
We have a UN mission Minusk doing an absolutely fantastic job, of course, I'm humanitarian, but our missions are also help with security, help facilitate in different areas.
I was in emo, which is southeastern part of the country on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo where there's some insecurity.
But certainly, I asked from the last time we had an Orsa senior visit six months ago by ASG what has changed? I saw IDPs who had gone back into their homes, into the neighboring communities where they had been sheltered in a church six months ago.
So, dear members of the Press Corps, a country that is coming out of fragility, I think it's important to understand the numbers and what it means for us, maybe a few key figures.
Country has some 6 million people, and today about 2.3 million people in need of which 1.3 million people are targeted by the humanitarian community for support.
We say that one in every five Central African Republicans is displaced.
The numbers are a bit, you know, stock, I would say, but it's difficult to juxtapose progress in security, progress and stability with me saying at the same time their needs.
So fragile.
I spoke to the SRSG.
I engaged with, of course, the humanitarian coordinator and the different country team members.
The country is fragile, but the country is hopeful.
I met the president, the Minister of humanitarian action.
I met local authorities in emo, clear that things are changing.
However, as is also very clear, the progress can quickly unravel if attention is not sustained and if funding is not sustained.
We've had a good funding outlook for the Central African Republic for years, 95% funded.
Here and there.
We've had last year, we had a bit of a drop.
We were less than 40% funded of the appeal.
This year, we've received only 17% of the 268 million we're looking for.
Now, what did I see? A country that is fragile, but a country that is generous.
They host refugees from Chad, they host up some 36,000 refugees from Sudan.
When I was engaging with the country team, it was very clear also that, for example, the Sudanese refugees who've crossed over into Central African Republic, as you know, Sudan, a very educated population.
There are doctors and nurses in these camps saying that, Hey, we can actually help you.
Our humanitarian team on the ground were asking, how do we support these refugees that have come over, but also help them to feed into their economy and to support in that regard.
Um, the country has also given land to these 36,000 plus Sudanese refugees.
So I think the generosity of the Central African Republicans has to be acknowledged, and I think it's something that I did throughout my interactions.
I, of course, wanted to also maybe I'll get into humanitarian details in a minute.
Every time I'm sitting in front of you, I'm asking I'm telling you what I hear from people.
And what people say, we want peace, we want freedom of movement, we want to go back home.
We want our lives back.
I had not been to the Centr African Republic before, as I said, a country so green when you're flying in, all you see is like it's thick forest, very green lush, mangoes everywhere, you know, palm trees everywhere, very, very green, and you wonder if only people could just farm their lands, if only people could just tend to their cattle, things would be fine.
Of course, we don't work in context like this.
Wanting to highlight a few things that I spoke to Fane.
I engaged a lot, of course, as I always do the communities.
Fan, mother of five, who's a community leader in Zemo and asked her, what are the things that I should come back with when I leave Central Africa republic? What should I say? She said, three things.
As it's basics, isn't it? I want stability and peace.
She is from the Pol tribe, they are Muslim, and she wanted to just not be engaged in any fighting and any restrictions in her movement because she fears going out of her settlement in her area.
So peace and stability.
Number two, health and education for her children and her family.
Um, I was in Zemio.
I saw a few sites.
One of the sites was being run by Alema, an international NGO with some funding from the Humanitarian Pold Fund, some 5 million for which 2.4 million was used to support these what we call mobile clinics, a mobile clinic that comes twice a week.
Two, you know, into the settlement because people can't move into the, um, into the town for risk of their lives, for fear of their lives.
This mobile clinic by Alema supporting some 60 to 70 people every time they came a day, so 140 or more a week, not too bad for the funding that they receive.
Health being clear.
The school system in Zemo almost nonexistent, so she asked for health and education.
The last thing she asked for was support in livelihoods.
I've said this every time I'm back here.
I said this from Haiti, I said this from Ukraine.
I said it every time I travel and I get back here and I share our impressions of what the communities are asking for.
So that was funny.
We also saw a fantastic project done by the Food and Agriculture Organization, a project that they say teach a man how to fish and you sustain them, feed them with one fish, and it kind of runs out very quickly.
FAO's resilience Pro is quite fascinating to see.
People are farming their lands when there's security, when there's peace, obviously.
Farming their lands and, you know, sustaining themselves with the produce.
There's no food distribution in that part.
And that is one of the things that I give my hats off to the humanitarian coordinator and the team for what they've done in emo, once, of course, there's peace and stability and security.
I also saw, I mean, you don't hear it a lot.
You hear it in neighboring DRC, but not in the Central African Republic, where you hear of a lot of cases of gender based violence, mainly by the armed militia or armed actors in the area.
Significant numbers reported UNFPA shared the reduction in the reporting not because it's not happening, but because we don't have the ability as humanitarians, to be all over the country.
Dear members of the press corps, the funding cuts are real in their context like the Central African Republic.
I spoke with many of our partners.
The international NGOs have closed 20%, 120 of 634 of their offices and satellite offices in the country.
My own organization, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, we used to have 15 sub offices and antenna offices across the country.
We've cut that down to seven, and I saw firsthand what that means.
When OCHA is out there coordinating with our partners, we're able to see more, we're able to report more.
I have a lot more to say on a context like the Central African Republic, a fragile context, but hopeful, but a context where if we don't sustain the funding, we will see ourselves slipping back into crisis mode, at a situation we can't afford.
Two more points, a government that is trying, but of course, fragile, the humility of the engagement from the president all the way to the local authorities, thanking the UN and our partners for their support, but also noting that when they have the means, they can do it themselves as a national plan of action.
There's a lot more on the RC resident coordinator hat that I'm not going to get into.
I spoke with our partners.
They are worried that if we don't sustain the response in health, infrastructure, health in particular, communicable diseases are very, very rampant, very clear.
I often come back from these missions and I say health has no borders.
You know, the country is surrounded by a lot of fragile states.
I think we need to do all we can to support the communities on the ground to sustain themselves from health to education, from education to food security and everything else that we cover.
I'll stop you Farhan.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks very much.
I'll now turn the floor over for questions.
E.
Thank you very much, miss Horserner, Edith La from the Associated Press, and welcome on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing.
A couple of questions.
Who's responsible for the insecurity and instability that's still existing in the Central African Republic, are there any signs of terrorist groups related to either Al Qaeda or the Islamic state? And on the issue of funding, what message do you have to donors who have so many excuse me, who have so many dire situations in front of them of why they should support giving to the Central African Republic.
Thank you.
Goldfine.
Thanks a lot.
Edith.
It's always good to have you take the floor first.
I am The insecurity.
I mean, there have been many armed actors on the ground in the Central African Republic, and the area I went to Zemo in the southeastern part of the country, there were some skirmishes.
Also, there's been sometimes the I don't want to label it, but the skirmishes between militia, you know, associated to the one group, the I think there's some religious tensions there as well.
I don't and didn't hear or see evidence of al Qaeda or any of those elements, but I do know that the country has gone through quite a lot when it comes to ensuring that different parties to the conflict are part of the reconciliation measures.
And, of course, this is squarely within the mandate of the mission Minusk.
And I think, as I think you've seen from the renewal of the mandate discussions, they have done a phenomenal job in the country.
I saw a number of peacekeepers on the ground, and I also saw different private security forces on the ground.
So there is progress when it comes to the security situation.
I didn't see issues around counter terrorists, but maybe somebody else can speak to that.
Edith, on your question of funding, I really like that.
The last time I think one of the contexts, I said, in this room, it costs $0.55 per person per day for people in Sudan, for the UN and our partners to deal with the humanitarian appeal there.
It costs $16 to provide food to one displaced person in the Central African Republic for three months.
I asked my team for these statistics.
This is less than a sandwich in midtown, obviously.
It's very very little.
It costs $26 to provide healthcare for one displaced person for a year, $26 for an entire year.
This is not a lot.
The sphere standard for water is 15 liters per day for drinking, cooking, basic hygiene.
It's nothing.
However, I think we have to first thank our donors for the generosity that they have helped us sustain the humanitarian response for a long time in the Central African Republic.
You are right.
We're facing a lot of funding cuts, and I think there are many issues, reasons for that.
You've heard my Secretary-General in here talking about 87 million lives and giving them some form of humanitarian assistance globally, we're asking for $23 billion.
Not a lot when you look at the global sphere and what we're asking for.
What I was encouraged to see as humanitarian partners in the Central African Republic doing all sorts of innovations, right? We saw as I said, people are now farming their land when they can, when there's security.
It's not about food distribution.
I saw about three wells and water pumps by ICRC and by UNICEF in a location.
Again, we're changing the way we do business.
It costs about 200,000 to $250,000 a day to do water trucking.
And yet when you build a well or you have a water pump station, it's much cheaper.
So evolving in our humanitarian response efforts is something that they're doing in the country.
I have to also maybe highlight the fact that we have reduced our ask quite significantly.
This $268 million is really at least 100 million less than we asked for last year.
You've heard us talk about the hyper prioritize planning in this room.
Um, we're only targeting 1.3 million.
The reason we're focusing on that is so that we can call our development partners and actors to come and do the things that humanitarians cannot.
But indeed, adjusting our response efforts to match also the funding climate and pushing, as I mentioned, also the government, dealing with the national plan of action and getting into more recovery and development type activities.
Last point, the World Bank, for example, has given, from what I heard, the government $50 million to look into health, education, women, maternal health issues in the country, which I have to say for women, girls everywhere we go to, we highlight the need for attention on their issues and the plight of women and girls.
I'll stop here.
Thanks.
Thanks, miss Cicerno for the briefing.
This is Gabriel Azando from Al Jazier English.
I just have two questions.
When you met with the president, there were some reports that you told the president that humanitarian aid in the country needed to be rethought and restructured.
Is that true or was that incorrect? I read that in my preparations for your remarks today.
And can you shed any light on that in your conversations with him? And number two is you talked about your visit to Zemo in the Southeast.
I think you went up to the Northeast as well or not, the border with Sudan? Okay.
That's why I focused on Zemio on Zemeo can you just one more time, just give us your key takeaway? I know you mentioned a lot of it, but in your Haiti briefing, for example, your very powerful remarks about what you saw in your impressions in Haiti.
Can you just summarize one more time, particularly in Zemio on the border with the DRC? Thanks.
Thanks, Gabriel.
My conversation with the government was the president was congratulating him on the elections, congratulating him on some inching forward of the security situation and the stability in the country.
What I did say was what we always like to highlight, the first primary responsibility of a state is assistance to their people.
I think with the generosity of donors over the years, adjusting our footprint that I've just highlighted is important.
We have really hyper prioritize what we're asking for in the country.
We are looking at the acute humanitarian need, and we're calling on development partners to come into the country to invest in the country, to do things that we as humanitarians cannot do.
I think the humanitarian response efforts will continue, but we are seeing also a reduction.
As I said, lots of closures of NGOs, UN.
One entity mentioned that their budget is now down 52000000-32 million.
One UN agency has cut 50% of its programs in the country.
I don't want to speak for them.
This data is all out there.
With a significant cuts in our humanitarian response efforts because of our funding crunch, as well as with some um, progress in the country.
We can't keep doing the humanitarian response the way we did in the past.
And I think kudos to Mohammed Ayoya, our humanitarian coordinator and the team on the ground for the work that they've been able to do.
So adjustments in the way we do business in CAR, which is ongoing.
They say the humanitarian reset in CAR continues even started last year with Tom's vision, under Secretary-General.
In Zemo, three things, again, When people have security, they don't want handouts.
They want to work and earn their keep.
They want to farm their lands, they want to herd their cattle.
They don't want to sit and wait.
People of Central Africa are public, generous people, very clear that they've seen a lot of turmoil in their country, but they are also hopeful, a bit different from Haiti when I came back, it was a stark difference from my last visit.
This time, there's progress in the other direction.
As I said, my assistant Secretary-General was there six months ago.
What she saw, displacements in the church.
Today, those displaced populations have gone back to their areas.
However, if I'm to ask for two key things to support on the humanitarian side, health, health, health, maternal health, women's health, the infrastructure for health practically nonexistent in a country that is really fragile and it's getting better, but it's a file there's a fragility that needs to be highlighted.
Number one, And number two, education.
We need to educate you know this is, you know, UNICEF will be happy.
I'm talking about children and education because as we know, when children are not in school, they could be forced into armed groups or they could be doing things that we don't want children to do.
So I'll keep it to that.
Thank you.
I see no further questions.
So with that, I'd like once more to thank our guest, Ed Moorno, the director of OCHA Crisis Response Division.
Thanks very much.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Thanks, B.
Thank you.