International Efforts to Protect Civilians in Central African Republic Failing to Stop Slaughter | MSF USA

International Efforts to Protect Civilians in Central African Republic Failing to Stop Slaughter | MSF USA

GENEVA/NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 18, 2014—The extreme
levels of violence against civilians and targeted killing of minority
groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) illustrates the utter
failure of international efforts to protect the population, said the
international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without
Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). This is a damning indictment of
the international response to the crisis and amounts to the effective
abandonment of the Central African population.

MSF calls on member states of the UN Security Council, as well as
donor countries, to mobilize to immediately halt the atrocities against
the population; establish the level of safety needed for people to move
freely without fear for their lives; and organize a massive deployment
of aid to meet the basic needs of the population. Local and national
leaders must do their utmost to stop the violence and enhance
protection.

“Our foremost concern is protection. We are caught in a sense of
helplessness faced with extreme violence, treating thousands of wounded,
and seeing hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homes as it is
their only option to avoid being slaughtered,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF
international president, who recently returned from CAR. “There is a
shocking lack of engagement and mobilization of political leaders in the
UN Security Council, and a too limited one from African countries and
the African Union to address the violence that is literally tearing
apart the Central African Republic.”