>  Alerts archive   >  issue 40
© WFP

Central African Republic: Nearly half of the population highly food insecure

Overview

The IPC projection update conducted in March 2021 indicates that, from April through August 2021, 2.29 million people in the Central African Republic will likely be in high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above), almost half of the population covered by the analysis. In the analysis conducted in September 2020, the food security situation was projected to deteriorate between September 2020 - April 2021 (the current period) and May-August 2021 (the projection period), due to the likely worsening of the security situation throughout the country between October 2020 and January 2021. The initial projection for the period May-August 2021 did not take into account food assistance. However, since then, humanitarian organisations have responded with significant assistance to the crisis, preventing further deterioration.
Download brief in French
Download summary in english

Actions Needed

There is a need to provide assistance to affected populations, particularly those in Crisis and Emergency (IPC Phase 3 and 4). It is recommended to:

  • Provide immediate and targeted food assistance to the most vulnerable populations, in particular displaced persons, returnees and host families, prioritising people with specific needs (poor and very poor households, elderly people, people with chronic illnesses, HIV, etc.);
  • Prioritise actions to strengthen livelihoods, access to productive assets (agricultural and livestock) and community resilience in the most affected sub-prefectures, so that they can withstand recurrent shocks (security, socio-economic, health, environmental, etc.);
  • Continue to raise awareness to enforce measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the most affected areas while ensuring that households are able to maintain their livelihoods and access to food;
  • Continue interventions to prevent and treat acute malnutrition for children under five and pregnant and lactating women;
  • Improve food utilization and its impact on nutrition by facilitating people’s access to safe water sources through the rehabilitation and development of boreholes in areas where access to safe water remains low, while increasing hygiene and sanitation awareness among households in hard-to-reach areas.

Snapshot

In the March 2021 projection update, it is projected that 22 areas will be in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), as opposed to 10 areas projected to be in Emergency in the September 2020 analysis. This update of the April - August 2021 period therefore indicates a more critical situation. While the number of people in Phase 3 or above remained around the same as expected from the previous analysis for the projection period, a deterioration is observed because food insecurity remained steadily high despite the increased assistance. In conclusion, this update shows that both magnitude and severity of food insecurity increased for this period.
Download the snapshot in French

IPC Classification Maps

Join our mailing list  

  >