Since March 2020, fighting has been taking place in Bamingui Bangoran Prefecture, affecting both the local population and humanitarian NGOs operating in the area. During this period, humanitarian NGOs have been repeatedly robbed of their premises with theft of material goods and violence against their staff. Since the beginning of the crisis, humanitarian coordination has worked to provide full support to humanitarian actors and the affected population.
Unfortunately, from 29 April to 10 May 2020, the level of insecurity in Ndele reached an unacceptable level for the population and for the humanitarian NGOs working there, with a direct impact on our ability to help the people of the region. This untenable situation has forced us to temporarily suspend our activities in this region while we assess the situation and obtain the necessary guarantees for the safety of our teams and infrastructure.
We regret this decision, but we cannot continue to work when we are regularly subjected to targeted attacks that deprive us of our means of work and endanger the lives of our personnel.
We call on all parties to the conflict in CAR to respect the population, the humanitarian personnel and infrastructure and to do everything possible to restore order and security.
We hope for a rapid improvement in the security situation so that we can quickly resume our activities in favour of the population.
We thank the Humanitarian Coordinator and the various partners for their important support and ongoing actions aimed at creating the conditions for the protection of civilians and the forthcoming resumption of our activities.
As independent, neutral and impartial humanitarian organizations, we recall that our presence in the country has the sole purpose of assisting vulnerable populations according to the ideals of humanism.
Done in Bangui, 15 May 2020
by the Heads of Mission and Country Directors of Humanitarian NGOs:
Norwegian Refugee Council, Première Urgence Internationale, Search For Common Ground, War Child
