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© UNICEF/UN0239441/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO UNICEF CHILD ALERT November 2018 CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC In a neglected emergency, children need aid, protection – and a future CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC REPUBLIQUECentralN'D JCENTRAFRICAINE:A MAfricanENA RepublicCarte des mouvements de population – septembre 2018 SUDAN 2 221 CHAD 99 651 SOUTH VAKAGA SUDAN 1 526 1 968 BAMINGUI- BANGORAN 6 437 48 202 49 192 HAUTE-KOTTO NANA 44 526 GRÉBIZI 107 029 OUHAM- OUHAM PENDÉ 108 531 HAUT- 16 070 MBOMOU KÉMO OUAKA NANA 22 830 OMBELLA-MPOKO 53 336 MAMBÉRÉ 11 672 BASSE 17 425 KOTTO MBOMOU 14 406 BANGUI 45 614 MAMBÉRÉ- 7 758 KADEI 85 431 LOBAYE SANGHA Refugees CAMEROON MBAERE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC Internally displaced people 2 857 31 688 173 136 OF THE CONGO Source: Commission de mouvement 264 578 de populations CONGO September 2018 Source: OCHA, UNHCR. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 IN A NEGLECTED EMERGENCY, CHILDREN NEED AID, PROTECTION – AND A FUTURE 1 REPUBLIQUEN'D JCENTRAFRICAINE:AMENA Carte des mouvements de population – septembre 2018 SUDAN In this Child Alert 2 221 CHAD Overview: Resurgent conflict, plus poverty, equals danger for children .................................. 2 1. Children and families displaced 99 651 SOUTH VAKAGA and under attack .................................................. 7 SUDAN 2. Alarming malnutrition rates – 1 526 and the worst may be yet to come .................... 9 1 968 3. Education in emergencies: BAMINGUI- Learning under fire .............................................11 BANGORAN 4. Protecting children and young people 6 437 from lasting harm ...............................................13 48 202 49 192 HAUTE-KOTTO 5. The urgent need for security and peace ........16 44 526 NANA 107 029 GRÉBIZI 6. Funding the emergency response ................ 20 OUHAM- OUHAM PENDÉ 108 531 HAUT- 16 070 MBOMOU KÉMO OUAKA NANA 22 830 OMBELLA-MPOKO 53 336 MAMBÉRÉ 11 672 BASSE 17 425 KOTTO MBOMOU 14 406 BANGUI 45 614 MAMBÉRÉ- 7 758 KADEI 85 431 LOBAYE SANGHA Refugees CAMEROON MBAERE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC Internally displaced people 2 857 31 688 173 136 OF THE CONGO Source: Commission de mouvement 264 578 de populations CONGO September 2018 © UNICEF/UN0239452/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 2 CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC OVERVIEW: Resurgent conflict, plus poverty, equals danger for children © UNICEF/UN0239511/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO In December 2013, Bangui, the capital of the Central African child needs protection from the fighting and its African Republic (CAR), descended into a brutal far-reaching effects. bloodbath. The violence fleetingly made international headlines, leading to warnings of a failed state and Children who joined armed groups because their possible genocide before it gradually diminished. parents had been killed or because they were so poor – and who eventually left because they were terrified, or But now the few early signs of recovery and rebuilding hungry, or realized it was a dead-end – desperately need in CAR have given way to a dramatic resurgence a break, an opportunity, the prospect of a decent life. in fighting that has enveloped parts of the country Girls whose bodies have been brutalized – whether by previously spared from the violence. Today, life is even armed militants or because they were driven to selling harsher and more fraught with danger for children than their bodies by mind-numbing poverty – urgently need it was at the peak of the crisis. care and support. And judging by the amount of attention CAR gets, Above all, the children of CAR need security. The places barely anyone is watching what is happening across they go for protection and support – including schools, this vast, landlocked nation at the heart of Africa. hospitals and places of worship – are increasingly under attack by the armed groups that control and terrorize Two out of three children in CAR need humanitarian four fifths of the country. Reaching children with assis- assistance. One in four children is displaced or a refugee. tance is dangerous, and sometimes deadly. The skeletal bodies of children fortunate enough to make it to the nutrition ward at CAR’s only paediatric At the same time, the crisis is unfolding within an hospital virtually scream ‘famine.’ Almost every Central acute development emergency. CAR ranks 188th out of UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 IN A NEGLECTED EMERGENCY, CHILDREN NEED AID, PROTECTION – AND A FUTURE 3 “This crisis is taking place in one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, and one of the most dangerous for humanitarian workers. Conditions for children are desperate.” Christine Muhigana, UNICEF Representative, Central African Republic © UNICEF/UN0239460/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 4 CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 189 countries in the United Nations Human Develop- relief and a development strategy that functions with ment Index, a composite indicator measuring life all the urgency of an emergency response. For the next expectancy, income and education. Neonatal death decade, at least, that strategy will require multi-year rates are the second highest in the world. Nearly half funding that is predictable and flexible enough to of the population does not have access to clean water. surmount inevitable setbacks and shocks. Three quarters lack basic sanitation. And the country’s school dropout rate is a staggering 70 per cent. “The children of the Central African Republic have been abandoned for too long,” says Christine Muhigana, the Sadly, there are more people living in extreme poverty UNICEF Representative in CAR. “They need attention in CAR now than there were a decade ago. and help now, and they will need it for the long run.” The humanitarian crisis and the development emergency The following pages highlight the situation of the exacerbate each other, preying upon some of the most children and young people who require attention and vulnerable and neglected children in the world. If CAR’s aid across a range of sectors in CAR. They deserve children and families are ever to turn the page on years nothing less. of recurrent crises, they will need far more emergency © UNICEF/UN0239542/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 IN A NEGLECTED EMERGENCY, CHILDREN NEED AID, PROTECTION – AND A FUTURE 5 CRISIS IN CAR, BY THE NUMBERS A neglected, dangerous and deteriorating crisis for children: • Two out of three Central African children require • CAR suffers an ‘extremely alarming’ level of hunger, ranking humanitarian assistance – 1.5 million children, up from 119th out of 119 countries on the 2018 Global Hunger Index. 1.2 million in 2016. • The number of attacks against aid workers more than • Displacement is spreading. There are almost 643,000 quadrupled – from 67 incidents in all of 2017 to 294 in just internally displaced Central Africans, up from 369,000 the first eight and one-half months of 2018. In 2017, the last in June 2015. year with available data, CAR was world’s fourth most dangerous country for aid workers, after South Sudan, the Syrian Arab • More than 573,000 Central Africans have sought refuge Republic and Afghanistan. in neighbouring countries. • Despite a major upsurge in fighting and displacement, • Malnutrition is intensifying. The number of children who are only 44 per cent of UNICEF’s US$56.5 million target for 2018 expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition has steadily humanitarian funding in CAR had been met as of October. risen, from 32,348 in 2014 to more than 43,000 projected for 2019. The overall international humanitarian response was just 36 per cent funded as of September. © UNICEF/UN0239497/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 6 CRISIS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC One of the world’s least developed and poorest countries: • Average life expectancy for Central African children is 52 years – the world’s lowest. • Almost half the population does not have access to clean water, while three quarters lack access to basic sanitation. • Fewer than three in five of CAR’s children make it through © UNICEF/UN0239466/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO primary school. • More than two thirds of girls are married before they turn 18, and 29 per cent are married before they turn 15. • CAR is getting poorer. An estimated three out of four people live on less than US$1.90 a day, up from two out of three a decade ago. • And thousands of Central African children, mostly boys, are believed to be in armed groups. Thousands more, mostly girls, are sexually exploited and abused. Insecurity and lack of humanitarian access make the exact numbers difficult to assess. © UNICEF/UN0239556/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO One of the world’s riskiest countries for infants and pregnant mothers: • CAR has the second-highest newborn death rate in the world, meaning 1 in 24 newborns do not survive their first 28 days. By comparison, the rate in Iceland is 1 in 1,000. • CAR has the second-highest maternal mortality ratio, at 882 out of 100,000 live births. A mother has a 1 in 27 chance of dying due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, compared to 1 in 12,900 in Sweden. UNICEF CHILD ALERT | November 2018 IN A NEGLECTED EMERGENCY, CHILDREN NEED AID, PROTECTION – AND A FUTURE 7 1. Children and families displaced and under attack © UNICEF/UN0239517/GILBERTSON VII PHOTO In the wake of the Bangui carnage in 2013, peacekeepers it is far more widespread, with many more families lack- from France, the African Union and the United Nations ing reliable access to food – and, therefore, depending eventually put a lid on the fighting. Hope was tangible. on host communities that are themselves less resilient Meeting in Brussels in November 2016, the United than they once were.

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