Ireland is providing tents, blankets and other vital supplies to assist refugees in Cameroon who have fled the violence in the Central African Republic.
Plan Ireland will distribute the €200,000 airlift from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Accra, Ghana where Irish Aid stores supplies for use in global emergencies.
“Up to 2,000 people a week have been crossing [from the CAR] into neighbouring Cameroon, many of them wounded in sectarian clashes and suffering from malnutrition after weeks hiding in the bush,” said Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello.
“Last Wednesday, the United Nations food aid and refugee agencies appealed for funds to cope with a growing humanitarian crisis in Cameroon caused by thousands of refugees.”
The UN estimates that there are almost 557,000 people displaced by the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic, which has lately seen attacks on humanitarian workers.
Some 2.5 million – more than half of the country’s total population – are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance.
The emergency supplies follow more than €3m in funding so far this year to support UN agencies and NGO partners to provide food, water, shelter, healthcare and education to the most vulnerable people in the Central African Republic.
