OIC to send humanitarian team to CAR

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will on Wednesday lead an international humanitarian delegation to the Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon and the Chad, which will be headed by Ambassador Fouad Maznaie, representative of the OIC Humanitarian Affairs Department.
Maznaie said the objective of the weeklong urgent humanitarian mission is to help victims of the conflict in the war-torn country and neighboring states.
The mission will hold consultations with senior officials to discuss ways of extending urgent humanitarian assistance to displaced people and refugees and to obtain first-hand information by visiting refugee camps in the Central African Republic, Cameroon and Chad.
He said that the delegation will include officials of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Islamic Solidarity Fund, the International Islamic Relief Organization, the Turkish Red Cross, the Turkish IHH Organization, Qatar’s Charity Foundation, Britain’s Islamic Relief, Britain’s Islamic Aid and other international humanitarian organizations.
The mission is expected to draft a comprehensive humanitarian intervention program pursuant to the resolution of the emergency ministerial executive committee meeting held at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah on Feb. 20, which provided for the dispatching of a high-level delegation to the Central African Republic to assess the prevalent situation on the ground and to show solidarity with the Muslim community.
A high-level ministerial delegation subsequently visited the conflict-ridden Central African Republic at the end of April.
The delegation, which is composed of several ministers from OIC member states and the OIC secretary-general, was led by Lounceny Fall, chairman of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers and foreign minister of the Republic of Guinea. The delegation also visited the Cameroon and Chad.
The bloody events witnessed in Central African Republic led to the displacement of more than 2 million Muslims.
The capital Bangui was also cleansed of Muslims, with only a few thousand remaining after massacres and the destruction of property.