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Geneva (Agenzia Fides) - More funds are needed to help refugees from the Central African Republic who have been welcomed in neighboring States, said Msgr. Robert J Vitillo, head of Caritas Internationalis’ delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, in a statement on the occasion of the launch of the Inter-Agency Central African Republic Regional refugee Response 2015, sponsored by the UNHCR (UN agency for aid to refugees).
Msgr. Vitillo recalls - in the text sent to Agenzia Fides - that the overall budget plan prepared by UN agencies for 2015 amounts to 331 million dollars, but NGOs will receive $ 14 million. According to the head of Caritas Internationalis, NGOs should receive an equitable share of funding made available by international donors.
Nearly 190,000 people have fled the Central African Republic since the anti-Balaka militias overran the capital Bangui in December 2013. Before that, more than 230,000 people already had fled, bringing the total number of refugees from the Central African Republic to some 425,000. Many are in Cameroon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In these Countries, Caritas has been providing training programs for refugees as well as education, sanitation, clean water and food assistance.
Msgr. Vitillo has finally launched an appeal to help the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons accommodated in makeshift camps in the same Central African Republic. The structures of the Catholic Church in Central Africa, said Msgr. Vitillo, welcome more than 80,000 internally displaced persons, to whom Caritas is providing assistance. However, he concluded, "the complex environment makes this emergency work very difficult". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/01/2015)
