IRELAND IS SENDING vital supplies to refugees from Central African Republic – including tents, blankets and other vital supplies.
The supplies will be sent to refugees from CAR in Cameroon, who have fled the deadly violence in their home country, Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello TD announced today.
The stocks will be distributed by Plan Ireland and the airlift, worth almost €200,000, is being sent from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Accra, Ghana.
The supplies are in addition to more than €3 million in funding so far in 2014 to support UN agencies and NGO partners to provide food, water, shelter, healthcare and education to the most vulnerable people in the Central African Republic.
Minister Costello said he is “gravely concerned” about the impact that the violence is having on the civilian population, in particular the plight of refugees.
“This situation demands a determined response from the international community,” he said.
Costello said that the World Food Programme and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have said up to 2,000 people a week have been crossing into neighbouring Cameroon.
Many of these people have been wounded in sectarian clashes and are suffering from malnutrition after weeks hiding in the bush.
The United Nations food aid and refugee agencies recently appealed for funds to cope with a growing humanitarian crisis in Cameroon due to the influx of refugees.
The UN estimates that there are almost 557,000 people displaced within Central African Republic. Some 2.5 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance and the entire population of 4.6 million has been affected by the ongoing crisis.
The Minister also condemned the recent attacks on humanitarian agencies in the Central African Republic.
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