By Judith Ugwumadu | 24 July 2014
The United Nations refugee agency is calling for a further $210m from international donors to fund programmes for countries hosting refugees from crisis-hit Central African Republic.
The appeal is backed by 16 other agencies providing humanitarian relief. The UN said an increasing number of CAR nationals are fleeing to Chad, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.
Its Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP), published yesterday said increased funds are needed to help a total of 306,500 CAR refugees by December 2014.
The report stated: ‘With the situation continuing to evolve so critically, the RRP for the CAR refugee situation which was launched in April 2014 has had to be revised. The RRP originally called for $274m based on an expected beneficiary population of 362,200 by December 2014.
‘Now, it includes requirements of $210m based on a beneficiary planning population of 306,500. Crucially, the revision reflects the significant increase of refugees in Cameroon which had not been planned for. Already today, the original planning figure of 100,000 refugees by the end of 2014 has been surpassed.’
The report revealed that most of the CAR refugees are heading to Cameroon where the country is currently hosting 118,176 migrants. By the end of the year the UN expects this number to rise to 200,000.
Since December last year, some 17,500 have arrived in Chad, and this is expected to grow to 45,000 by the end of this year.
Currently, there are over 15,000 CAR refugees in DRC, this figure is expected to grow to 35,000 by December this year. There are another 9,000 in the Republic of Congo, which the UN says will grow to 26,500.
Babar Baloch, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for refugees, said: ‘Serious gaps in assistance remain in shelter and water, sanitation and hygiene. This poses particular concern now that the rainy season has begun.
‘The CAR remains one of the most poorly-funded emergencies. The underfunding is badly hampering our ability to provide even basic survival assistance for the refuges and even less to host communities.
‘UNHCR has seen particularly serious malnutrition rates in Cameroon for over 118,000 arrivals in the last six months. Over 60% of the refugees are women and children, with a high number of unaccompanied children.’
Last week, the European Union launched it's first-ever donor development trust fund to support CAR, making an initial contribution of €64m. It said the fund would create a coordinated international instrument for linking relief, rehabilitation and development, aimed at filling the gap between short-term relief and long-term development aid.
