In 2007, following a request from UN, DRC started working with Internally Displaced Persons  and host populations in the Central African Republic (CAR).
The last 30 years of underdevelopment and instability in CAR has resulted in a highly unstable environment and massive internal displacements. The country is one of the poorest in the world and the political conflict, brutal banditry, and the destruction of health centres and houses has not improved the situation. Approximately one fourth of the population – or 1 million people are affected by the conflict, including 125,000 who are internally displaced.

The Early Recovery programme objective for the CAR operation is to strengthen protection and self-reliance capacities among the conflict affected population in the northern part of the country where most of the internally displaced live. The Strategy developed for DRC in CAR focuses on meeting protection needs by facilitating reduced vulnerability and reliance on relief assistance through both economic and social capacity developing initiatives on community as well as household level.

Paoua

The region in which DRC has its main operations Ouham-Pendé has, during the last four years, been subject to violent fights between rebels and government forces, leading to numerous violations of the rights of the civil population. In Paoua, the biggest city of Ouham-Pendé more than 60 % of the population has now returned after having been forced to flee their homes – often several times during the armed conflict. People are now returning to the area because it is relatively safe due to the presence of DRC and other international NGOs. The target group in Paoua consists of 4,762 family clusters, out of which 3,011 families are Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who have returned and 1,543 families are IDPs seeking refuge in Paoua. The target group consist of 22,807 people who have been chosen due to the fact that they have previously received no or little humanitarian assistance. Furthermore, the assistance to returned IDPs contribute to a stabilisation of the situation in the area, both in terms of protection provision of the population in Paoua Commune and through the facilitating of social and economic recovery. This will entail a durable solution for the people who have returned.

Most of the conflict affected communities depend completely on agriculture and livestock for sustenance. During the conflict, their livelihoods have been severely affected due to looting or burning of tools and livestock. They are therefore only able to cultivate a very limited piece of land. DRC provides support to households in order for them to improve their production special attention is given to women as they play a key role in food production. This is done by providing seeds and tools and by introducing diversified cropping. Furthermore, DRC provides support to the already existing micro-credit scheme, developed by the beneficiaries.

Ndele

Ndele was included into the DRC Area of Operation in the second half of 2008. It is the main city of Bamingui-Bangoran Prefecture in the north central part of CAR, close to the boarder with Chad. The commune consists of 27 villages with a population of 10.678 out of which more than 60% are children under the age of 18. Recently, due to troubles on the northern axis of Ndele toward Chad, more than 2000 IDPs have arrived and an additional number of IDPs is foreseen. The majority of the people who left their village on that axis remained for a while in their camps in the forest but now start to seek for refuge in town. Since January 2009, this region has been subject to numerous fighting between the presidential army and rebel groups. In February 2009 a village was attacked by the army who killed 18 persons. The target group of the DRC intervention is the whole agricultural population with a special focus on women.

Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration of Children