The European Commission has decided to grant €26.5 million in emergency aid in favour of the victims of the humanitarian crisis raging in the Central African Republic and the neighbouring countries, which are hosting an increasing number of refugees.
This money was announced on Tuesday 18 September and comes with an appeal for full respect of humanitarian law to ensure access to those in need of assistance.
The funds, which will be taken from the budget of ECHO, the Commission's humanitarian aid service, will cover the most pressing needs of the most vulnerable people: food, drinking water, health care, but also support for agriculture to ensure means of subsistence. The Commission is also supporting the airborne humanitarian services of the UN to distribute aid to the country.
“Aid operations in the country or often hampered for security reasons. It is vital that humanitarian workers can deliver aid safely. Aid workers are not a target”, said the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides.
Currently, half of the population of the Central African Republic (2.5 million people) need humanitarian assistance and a quarter of the population (some 1.2 million people) have been forcibly displaced within the country, whilst 573,000 people have become refugees, mainly in Cameroon, DRC and chat.
Since 2014, the humanitarian aid provided by the EU and its member states to the region is in excess of €500 million. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)