Annual activity report

This preamble is usually the opportunity to remember the events which marked the past year. For 2009, we will keep in mind the only date of November 22nd. It is 11PM in Central African Republic. We are in Birao, more than a thousand kilometres away from the capital city of Bangui, at the far North of the country.
As required by security procedures, our team is inside the base since the night has fallen. Struggles for power favoured the rebellion of politico-military groups keeping the country in a permanent state of instability.  In addition to the refugees in Cameroun, Chad or Sudan, the number of displaced people within the country is estimated at 100.000 people.
Here, Triangle G H strives to maintain a certain level of food security and to create the conditions for a sustainable improvement of the access to drinking water and education. Olivier F. is the programmes co-ordinator in that region and Olivier D. is in charge of the WatSan*. The former has been working on the field since September, after having worked for us in Sudan, in Darfur for a year. Olivier D. arrived in October, after having also completed a mission in Darfur. Both are young, less than thirty years old, but nevertheless experienced, and most of all, strongly committed to humanitarian action. So, it is 11 PM, and gunshots ring out in the close vicinity of the place where our team is posted.  Respectful of the procedures, they shelter in a dedicated room and inform by radio the MINURCAT (United Nations Mission for the Central African Republic) located nearby. But everything goes very fast. The doors fly into pieces, the base is quickly looted, and the group of around fifteen armed men take off with two of our vehicles full of equipment, taking with them Olivier F. and Olivier D. We have been quickly informed and were hoping during the first hours that it was just a kidnapping to cover the escape of the looters. Unfortunately, that was not the case… Olivier F. and Olivier D. have been held in captivity for more than three months.
March 14th, 2010 will put an end to 112 days of worry and waiting for their families, friends and work colleagues. Olivier F. and Olivier D. are safe. The work undertaken in this Central African region continues, driven from a distance with reinforced safety procedures. Nevertheless, humanitarian workers are nowadays highly threatened. Heavy risks weigh on them whereas their presence on the different fields of action is absolutely necessary.

*Water, Hygiene and Sanitation