Lean season continues in north; second month of harvests brings relief in south

Download Report

The lean season is at its peak in the north of the country, with food reserves running low. The first harvests will not arrive for another two to three months, and most poor households are reliant on market purchases for most of their food needs. However, physical access to the market is very difficult due to the poor condition of roads during the rainy season, and high food prices are affecting households' ability to meet their food needs. The situation is even worse in conflict-affected areas, where market supplies and population movements are disrupted. Poor and displaced households face difficulties in accessing food and income due to well below-average access to fields, work opportunities, and wild foods. As a result, these households are likely facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) food security outcomes, while some recently displaced households and refugee populations are likely to face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes until January 2025 in the absence of humanitarian assistance.
While the lean season continues in the northern part of the country, harvests of maize, beans, groundnuts, cassava, sweet potatoes, and rainfed rice began last month in the rest of the country and are ongoing. These harvests will enable most households to cover their essential food needs without having to resort to negative coping strategies, experiencing Minimal (IPC Phase 1) outcomes until January 2025. However, in conflict zones such as Haut-Mbomou, harvests will be well below average and are likely to bring only marginal improvements to household food access and incomes. In these areas, food reserves will be rapidly depleted within a maximum of two to three months, and household access to gathering wild foods, hunting, and fishing will remain very limited, often within a security perimeter of less than 10 kilometers. Poor and displaced households will face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes until January 2025, with a portion of the population in Emergency (IPC Phase 4).
The conflict in Sudan continues to drive an influx of refugees into CAR. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 28,000 Sudanese refugees have arrived in CAR since the start of the crisis in April 2023, the majority settling in the Vakaga prefecture. In early August 2024, despite difficult access conditions during the rainy season, over one hundred Sudanese refugees were registered at the Korsi camp (Vakaga). Although the number of Sudanese refugees in Vakaga is lower than in Chad, Libya, and southern Sudan, refugees make up a very high proportion of the local population, which is very sparsely populated (around 83,000 people). These influxes exert considerable pressure on limited local resources and employment opportunities. In addition, herders who normally migrate in mid-June from summer grazing areas in CAR to wet-season pastures in Sudan have experienced delays this year due to the crisis. According to key informants, the delay in transhumance has exacerbated conflicts between farmers and herders.
Voluntary returns of displaced persons indicate an improvement in the security situation in some parts of the country. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 12,203 Central Africans have returned to CAR since the beginning of 2024, and more than 1,220 voluntary returnees were accompanied by humanitarian actors in 2023. Notably, the United Nations Security Council decided last month to lift the arms embargo that had been imposed on CAR during the 2013 coup d'état. It should be noted that, although the level of violence has decreased since the 2019 peace agreement, intense conflict and insecurity persist in Vakaga, Haut-Mbomou, Ouham-Pendé, and Haute-Kotto due to the presence of various armed groups.

Recommended citation: FEWS NET. Central African Republic Key Message Update August 2024: Lean season continues in north; second month of harvests brings relief in south, 2024.

This Key Message Update provides a high-level analysis of current acute food insecurity conditions and any changes to FEWS NET's latest projection of acute food insecurity outcomes in the specified geography. Learn more here.