Central African Republic: Adversity in a Silent Crisis

Silvia Hidalgo

A chapter in The Humanitarian Response Index 2008, 2009, pp 140-148 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) is practically unknown. In contrast to forgotten emergencies, it has never been in the limelight or received real attention. After more than three decades of misrule, the country remains trapped in a vicious circle of violence and insecurity, increasing poverty, aid dependency, and state failure.The CAR is regarded as a failed or even a “ghost” state with virtually no institutional capacity. State presence outside of the capital is either weak or non-existent. A substantial part of the country is controlled by rebels or at the mercy of bandits.There are urgent humanitarian needs among the population, with new crises emerging regularly and life expectancy falling at a rate of six months every year, mainly due to lack of adequate sanitation, and the high level of HIV/AIDS and preventable diseases.The UN Human Development Index ranks CAR as the sixth least developed country in the world. Furthermore, in a country of 4 million, over 300,000 people have been displaced, many of whom have fled to hideouts in the bush, where basic means of subsistence are often absent. In all, at least one million persons in the country are in need of humanitarian aid.

Keywords: Safe Drinking Water; Central African Republic; Humanitarian Response; World Food Programme; Rebel Group (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-58461-7_10

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230584617

DOI: 10.1057/9780230584617_10

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().