Central African Republic

Enduring Extreme Hunger & Violence

The Central African Republic (C.A.R.) ranks second to last in the 2018 Human Development Index, with almost all of its people living in poverty. And seemingly never ending cycles of political crisis and insecurity hit women in rural communities hardest.
WFP/ Phyza Jameel

Enduring Political Chaos

Although a new president and general assembly were elected in March 2016, large areas of the territory are still controlled by armed groups and the security situation remains volatile. While the signing of a Peace Agreement between the Government and 14-armed groups in February 2019 has improved the stability of certain areas, the humanitarian situation continues to be critical.

With livelihoods disrupted by conflict, food production and household purchasing power have weakened. Rising food prices mean that 65 to 75 percent of disposable income is now spent on food, and, according to the latest IPC Report, 45 percent of the population (2.1 million people) are food insecure. Of these, 85 percent are severely food insecure (1.8 million). Around 40 percent of children aged between 6 months and 5 years are stunted, their growth limited by lack of nutrients in their diet.

According to the Humanitarian Needs Overview for 2022 (OCHA), humanitarian needs in CAR are at their highest level since 2015.

WFP/Bruno Djoyo
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Hunger Stats

Internal armed conflict has devastated the Central African Republic since 2014, continuing to force people to flee their homes and causing a severe breakdown in social systems. Renewed violence since 2017 has meant even more displacement with over one million people displaced.

WFP’s Work in Central African Republic

In collaboration with other humanitarian organizations, we’ve been providing emergency food and nutrition assistance to conflict-affected people in the C.A.R. Our crisis response work continues as we shift towards developing and supporting the Government’s own Zero Hunger policies and social security programs. We’re working to strengthen the country’s capacity for leading future crisis response and resilience-building.
Central African Republic, Batangafo, 07 November 2018

In Batangafo, in northern Central African Republic, violent clashes between armed groups on 31 October 2018 led to the burning of the IDP camp located in the center of the town leading to several deaths, injuries but also displacement of 27,000 people, most of whom were already internally displaced persons. 

WFP launched a response with World Vision, to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance on 7 November 2018. 

Photo: WFP/Bruno Djoyo
Access to Food
We help vulnerable communities meet their basic food and nutrition needs by distributing food – including specialized nutritious foods – and/or cash. As areas become more stable, refugees and others affected by the crisis will be helped to return home and focus will shift towards helping them recover their livelihoods. School feeding programs improve children’s nutrition and school attendance in areas facing food insecurity.
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CAR refugees in Cameroon
Nutrition
To help build long-term resilience, we’re working to improve the nutrition of vulnerable groups including children, people with disabilities and HIV patients. And as part of a revised response operation, 36,000 children under 5 will receive fortified food each day, part of a program designed to treat and prevent malnutrition. This program also supports vaccination, better water and sanitation, health training and women’s empowerment.
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People sit on brick benches in a camp for internally displaced people in Bangassou, Central African Republic.
Supporting Farmers
We help smallholder farmers to restore and enhance their productive assets, aiming to improve productivity and food security, as well as building resilience to future crises. Farmers receive transfers to grow crops and gain some independence, as well as technical assistance and market opportunities to improve their incomes and food and nutrition security. School meals and general food distributions programs purchase from smallholders; in 2018 benefiting 46,000 farmers (60 percent of them women).
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Sylvain Tiako shows a diagram on paper to a group of children
Capacity Strengthening
Working with other UN agencies and government institutions, We aim to strengthen national humanitarian and early recovery capacities, support the Government in developing and delivering its own Zero Hunger policies and social protection programs, which in turn will also incorporate initiatives to improve gender equality. These activities will be supported by detailed data and the development of monitoring and accountability systems.
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Uganda, Lake Victoria, 28 June 2018

WFP’s Global Fleet team has introduced a pioneering new vehicle to its Supply Chain – to make sure life-saving food gets to communities in the hardest-to-reach places and most challenging of circumstances.

Nenad Grkovic, WFP Global Fleet Manager said: “We are working in places that are very hard-to-reach because of floods and heavy rains – so WFP decided to innovate and use these new trucks to ensure we can help these families to survive during these hard times.”

SHERP All-Terrain Vehicles are designed to cope with the toughest road conditions and can easily overcome any obstacle in its way, float and move out of the water – so it can offer a more direct and cost-effective solution than helicopter airdrops. WFP plans to deploy the SHERP vehicles to make last mile deliveries of its nutritious food commodities through inaccessible roads to reach vulnerable and stranded communities.

The vehicles can hold 1.2 tonnes of food and has very low fuel consumption and can travel for around 500-600Kms on a full tank. WFP estimates the SHERP will cut transport costs significantly too – at 200 USD per metric ton instead of using helicopters at 4,000 USD per metric ton.

“The potential of these vehicles for WFP and other humanitarian actors is amazing,” continues Nenad, “by giving us access to beneficiaries in natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis – this could be a new life-saving innovation in WFP’s Supply Chain.”

The trucks will initially be used in the East and Central African region – with three being deployed to South Sudan and three to Democratic Republic of Congo. In June, WFP’s Global Fleet, Regional Bureau Nairobi and the Uganda Country Office simulated a testing ground for the new All-Terrain Vehicle to see its potential to make challenging last mile deliveries. SHERP trained WFP drivers from South Sudan and global fleet managers on operating the vehicles – through the shores of Uganda.
Humanitarian Network
Long distances, poor infrastructure, insecurity and the absence of commercial airlines stand in the way of achieving Zero Hunger in the C.A.R. To improve humanitarian access, communications and logistics, we runs the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) and lead the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) and Logistics Cluster to ensure safe, reliable and efficient access to populations in need.
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