Famine Early Warning Systems Network

The persisting lack of security is hampering the return of internally displaced persons. Population movements remain highly active due to the violent acts of armed groups in all the country’s prefectures, particularly Ouaka, Haute-Kotto, Nana-Grebizi, Ouham and Ouham-Pendé. Health and drinking water infrastructures put in place by the government and its partners are sometimes abandoned because of the violence, with displaced people ending up on new sites. This puts more strain on host families’ resources, increasing the need for assistance.

Rainfall has remained satisfactory since April, even if slight overall deficits have been recorded in most prefectures compared with the ten-year average (Figure 1). Excess total rainfall in the West of the country (Ouham-Pendé and Nana-Maberé prefectures) could cause flooding as the rain continues. Torrential rain in early June in Bangui destroyed 270 houses, leaving roughly 2,800 people homeless.

Displaced persons whose resources have been pillaged or set on fire very often find it difficult to restart their agricultural activities, as they lack seeds and farming tools. The abandoned cassava fields are most often exposed to damage caused by animals. Moreover, those who do have plots with crops find it difficult to access them out of fear of reprisals by armed groups.

Wild products are the main source of food in areas where people have been recently displaced. Households are adopting negative strategies, in particular reducing their number of meals, in order to survive. Multi-sector assessments carried out last month by some non-governmental organizations (ACTED in Mbomou prefecture and Action Against Hunger in Ouham prefecture) found that over 80 percent of households (displaced, returning refugees and hosts) are managing with just one meal a day. Only one-third of households have access to food they produce themselves (cassava). The others depend on markets and eating wild produce (yams, fruit, caterpillars and mushrooms). It is also difficult for people to access other basic products (oil, soap and salt) because of high prices and low incomes.

Poor households, particularly internally displaced persons, primarily rely on humanitarian assistance. However, armed men holding up convoys and pillaging humanitarian warehouses and the threats to humanitarian organizations sometimes lead to humanitarian assistance being suspended. Furthermore, some populations take refuge in remote locations, which are inaccessible to humanitarian organizations.

Consequently, the drop in consumption, worsening livelihoods and limited access to other basic products are making poor households vulnerable to acute food insecurity at Crisis (IPC Phase 3) level, particularly in areas that humanitarian assistance cannot access. Even when new harvests become available in August and September, the lack of access to fields caused by the ongoing violence and armed groups setting houses and harvests on fire means that at least 20 percent of households in these areas will remain in a food insecurity crisis. However, in areas accessible to humanitarian assistance, households’ food insecurity is in a Stressed! (IPC phase 2!) situation.