Médecins Sans Frontières - RCA, crisis far from over (long version, ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF249687

Date taken / Date Recorded 01/01/2015 12:00 AM

Country Central African Republic

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Copyright MSF

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 4m28s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 452.14 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Voir aussi JDM 01/2015
Central African Republic –A crisis far from over
CAR hit the world headlines in December 2013 when anti-Balaka militias launched an offensive on Bangui. But the country had already been in a state of crisis for very many years …
It’s been a year now, and the violence has lessened. But, there are still sporadic outbreaks and CAR is plunged yet again into chronic crisis. While the many international aid organisations present in certain regions are helping to ease the situation, they find themselves hampered by the insecurity. MSF alone was subjected to over 100 security incidents in 2014.
Delphine Chedorge, clip 3508, TC : 00’57
Although the heavy fighting seen a year ago in December and January has stopped, there’s still a lot of violence. And both the anti-balaka and Seleka groups are breaking up into different factions, factions that are quite simply committing criminal acts. Their strategies are essentially predatory and have no political ideology. Privately-owned vehicles and vehicles belonging to aid organisations are attacked and so are supply trucks—commercial and humanitarian. The violence that Central Africans have to face, aid agencies and their workers have to face too.
Even before the crisis, there weren’t enough state-run health facilities and the few there are have either closed or are only partially operating. So the health issues, which were already really serious, are getting even worse. The biggest problem is malaria.
Delphine Chedorge, clip 3508
03’58 Malaria is the top killer disease in Central Africa
04’10 It’s responsible for over 50% of our consultations and the majority of inpatient admissions. Treating it requires acute intensive care, transfusions and major primary and secondary healthcare. (…)
04’44 But the problem with malaria here is that the public health facilities are barely functioning, the aid organisations aren’t everywhere in the country and in lots of places, drugs aren’t getting through to people.
It’s the same for vaccines… With no equipment to maintain the cold chain, they’re stuck in storage in Bangui…
Delphine Chedorge, clip 3508
05’40 The country’s vaccination coverage is dire. (…) the Ministry of Health is still implementing the EPI strategy, that is the Extended Program on Immunisation for children aged between 0 and 11 months. We’re asking for more, to extend vaccination campaigns to include children up to the age of five, to protect them as far much? as possible, especially against measles.
Similarly, it’s a struggle to distribute the drugs needed to treat tuberculosis and AIDS, which affect as many as one in ten people in some regions here...
These health issues have been around for years... but are exacerbated by the influx of victims of violence and displaced people. MSF provides them with medical assistance.
Clip 3509
00'30 It can also be distributing things like plastic sheeting, blankets, mosquito nets, soap. Since mid-2014, we’ve being focusing on programmes to treat victims of sexual violence. (...) We have had a lot of rape victims come to us for treatment. And then of course there are the wounded so all our programmes are prepared for an influx of casualties. And, our emergency surgical unit in Bangui can provide advanced treatment for trauma victims.
Absence of an effective State authority, crime, widespread violence... It’s against this background that elections are due to be held, but, originally scheduled for February, they’re now postponed to June.
Clip 3509
Elections require a minimum of security and stability. But we’re seeing that any attempts to reinstate administrators or a police force end in failure because the requisite security conditions aren’t being met. Parallel administrations have been set up because the main armed groups won’t accept state representatives.
So we’re a very long way from the official statements made by the French authorities, who see CAR as getting "back to normal". Hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced or have fled to neighbouring countries and the reality—at least from the security and humanitarian perspective—is still extremely grim.