IOM Distributes Food to Newly Arrived Displaced in Northern CAR

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 13, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- IOM has distributed some 13.7 tons of food to some 1,400 newly arrived displaced persons (IDPs) in Kabo and Moyen-Sido, Central African Republic (CAR).

The distribution focused on the recently relocated PK12 community: a Muslim and minority population that had come under attack in the capital, Bangui, and decided to relocate to northern CAR.

The IDPs are receiving emergency assistance through the combined efforts of IOM, InterSOS, UNICEF, Solidarity International and MSF-Spain, as they settle into their new surroundings.

In Moyen-Sido, near the Chad border, food provided by the UN World Food Programme was distributed to over 1,080 people (308 households). Some 60 km south in Kabo, three tons of food were distributed to 314 people (146 households). IOM facilitated the distribution in collaboration with InterSOS.

Each person received a one-month emergency supply of rice, beans, oil, salt and Super Cereal Plus. A second round of distribution will be organized in the coming weeks.

Some of the PK12 community are being temporarily housed in long communal tents: eight in Kabo and 18 in Moyen-Sido. Others are living with host families.

The UN Humanitarian Country Team is planning longer-term assistance in these sites that will address the needs of the entire community in both Kabo and Moyen-Sido.

IOM has constructed temporary site offices in Kabo and Moyen-Sido to receive and register protection cases and is hiring local staff to carry out further registrations. It will soon establish a sub-office in Moyen-Sido to continue to provide emergency aid.

Kabo is a mixed community of some 16,000 residents where Christians and Muslims continue to live together. When the PK12 convoy arrived, the Kabo community prepared a welcome meal. The mayor convened a meeting with local leaders and invited the PK12 community to make Kabo their home. He also offered land for the community to farm and emphasized that in Kabo, Muslims and Christians “are all brothers.”

In Moyen-Sido the community also warmly welcomed the convoy's arrival, as many families and friends were reunited. The population of Moyen-Sido is now composed of some 11,000 people, of whom roughly 4,000 to 5,000 are IDPs. There are another 20,000 IDPs across the border in Sido-Chad.

There are now approximately 567,000 IDPs in CAR. This includes 142,000 people in Bangui at 42 displacement sites.