The Central African Republic (CAR) stands at a delicate crossroads—caught between fragile progress and deepening humanitarian need—according to Mohamed Ag Ayoya, the country’s Humanitarian Coordinator. While security has improved in parts of the country, more than a third of the population still depends on humanitarian assistance, underscoring how easily recent gains could unravel.
Today, around 35 percent of Central Africans require humanitarian aid, and one in five people is displaced. The situation has been worsened by the war in neighbouring Sudan, which has pushed waves of refugees into northern CAR. In the town of Birao, refugees now outnumber local residents, stretching already limited resources. Climate shocks, recurring food shortages, and health emergencies continue to compound vulnerabilities across the country.
Yet amid hardship, signs of hope persist. Where funding is available, humanitarian organisations have helped families return home, rebuild livelihoods, and regain a sense of dignity. Improved security has opened the door for development partners to build on these humanitarian gains, offering a pathway toward longer-term stability—if support can be sustained.
That progress was sharply tested in 2025. CAR’s Humanitarian Response Plan was funded at just 32.5 percent, the lowest level in a decade. As a result, more than one million people received no assistance, 60 humanitarian field offices closed, and over 1,000 aid workers lost their jobs. Clinics ran out of medicine, displaced families and refugees received half rations or none at all, and severely malnourished children went without life-saving therapeutic food.
Despite these constraints, donor contributions still enabled aid agencies to reach 726,000 people, though this represented a 36 percent drop from 2024. Humanitarian leaders warn that without urgent funding, conditions could deteriorate rapidly.
The human cost of these gaps is stark. During a visit to Zemio in October 2025, Ayoya encountered hundreds of women and children sheltering in a church after fleeing violence. One mother, holding her hungry three-year-old, quietly said, “The future feels dark.” She longed to return home but feared sexual violence—an anxiety shared by countless women across the country.
In response to shrinking resources, aid agencies have implemented a “Humanitarian Reset,” focusing strictly on life-saving assistance and consulting closely with affected communities and local authorities. Localization has become central to this effort. National NGOs now sit on the Humanitarian Country Team and co-lead response clusters. Direct funding to local organisations has increased dramatically—from 7 percent in 2022 to 35 percent in 2025—while support to women-led organisations rose from 17 percent to 28 percent.
Looking ahead to 2026, humanitarian leaders share a single overriding hope: that the Central African Republic is not forgotten amid competing global crises. Sustained donor support, they argue, is essential not only to save lives, but to allow development partners to invest in long-term solutions that can finally break the country’s dependence on aid.
What keeps humanitarian workers going, Ayoya says, are the moments that change lives—a safe childbirth, a vaccinated child, a displaced family finding shelter, or someone returning home to rebuild after years of upheaval. It is also the belief that CAR can emerge from decades of crisis and move toward recovery and prosperity.
Operating in CAR remains complex, with multiple armed actors present and strict neutrality required to ensure safety and access. Maintaining humanitarian space depends on continuous dialogue with national authorities, trust-building, and firm advocacy for international humanitarian law.
For young people drawn to this work, the message is clear: humanitarian service is demanding, unpredictable, and often exhausting—but deeply meaningful. It requires empathy, humility, patience, and respect for diverse cultures. For those driven by solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable, it offers a rare chance to turn compassion into action.
As crises multiply across the globe, the story of the Central African Republic is a reminder that progress, however fragile, is possible—but only if the world chooses not to look away.
