The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal raised £11.5 million to help people displaced by violence across Darfur, Chad and the Central African Republic. While the spotlight is often shone on Darfur and Chad, the suffering in the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) is less well known.

Conflict between government troops and armed groups is now in its second year causing at least 150,000 people to flee their homes into the forests. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stepped up its operations in CAR in the last six months. British Red Cross delegate, Jessica Barry, went to the troubled country to find out more.

Surviving in the bush

Gérard Kembi Nangindo walked along a forest path one recent afternoon carrying an armful of short-handled iron hoes. Anxious birds called overhead and rain clouds gathered.

 "This is where we fled to when our village was attacked," he said over his shoulder, "but it wasn't really safe and we could hear shooting, so we moved further away."

The attack he was referring to was one of many that took place last year along the road from Boguila to Paoua in north western CAR. Whole villages were emptied as families fled into the forest. Mr Kembi took his sister and her family with him, as well as his mother and grandmother, great aunt, three cousins and their wives.Finally, they settled about two kilometres into the bush, close to their fields.

Refuge

The path through the forest was lined on either side with waist high grass and sweet smelling plants. Beyond, through the tangled undergrowth, ancient trees pushed skywards, creating a green canopy.

An open space appeared where the trees had been felled and the red earth turned. Instead of coolness and shade, the sun slanted down on scattered shoots of millet and maize, and a carpet of green groundnut leaves. In the distance could be glimpsed the tattered thatched roofs and grey tarpaulins of a forest encampment.

It was to this spot that 24-year-old Mr Kembi was heading. The refuge is one of hundreds scattered across the region, sheltering thousands of displaced villagers who have fled the conflict between government troops and armed rebels, which is now in its second year.

Distribution

Mr Kembi had collected the hoes he was carrying from the ICRC in the village of Bodoli earlier that day. They were a welcome addition to the battery of old tools he had been using to keep the forest at bay around his fields.But it is not only the encroaching undergrowth that the displaced need to watch out for in their makeshift bush shelters. A lack of clean water and adequate food are other major problems. In such precarious conditions, and without ready access to health care, even minor illnesses, cuts and burns can quickly worsen.

Children are especially at risk. In an effort to assist the most vulnerable, the ICRC has distributed buckets, blankets, tarpaulins, mosquito nets and other household items to some 8,000 families around Paoua and Markounda since last year. Another 5,500 families will receive similar items over the coming weeks.

The hoes which Gérard Kembi and over 400 families received in Bodoli are part of the same programme, which will have provided help to tens of thousands of displaced people all across north west CAR by the end of August.

Daunting

The logistics of the whole operation have been daunting. Heavy items such as blankets and tarpaulins are sent to CAR by plane from Nairobi. Others come by road from neighbouring Cameroon. Locally available items such as soap and aluminium bowls are purchased on the spot.

We are working flat out on this job, but it is only when I take a day off that I feel tired

Ibrahim Al Abid, blacksmith in CAR

Everything then has to be transported by commercial truck along hundreds of kilometres of unmade, potholed roads from the capital, Bangui.

The 28,000 hoes that are required are being made in Paoua, where the ICRC established an office in April 2006.

The work is being done in a part of the town known as the 'blacksmiths' quarter'. The low, clattering forge is run by a foreman, Ibrahim Al Abid, and 23 apprentices. Mr Al Abid learned the trade from his father and took over the business 16 years ago when he retired. The ICRC's huge order will provide a boost for the local economy, and the forge, which also makes and repairs all kinds of metal ware from spades to wheelbarrows to broken down cars.

"We are working flat out on this job, "Ibrahim said poking at a coal fire kept red hot by an apprentice punching bellows. "But it is only when I take a day off that I feel tired."

Needs

Although hoes might seem an insignificant item when compared with the enormity of people's needs in the bush, for those who have lost everything even a little counts.

While Mr Kembi was in Bodoli for the distribution on 13 July, he showed two visitors his abandoned house.  "Everything has been stolen," he said grimly, standing just inside the entrance to the small, mud brick dwelling. He made a sweeping gesture that took in the dark recesses of the room where a bamboo bookcase and thermos flask were the only furniture. On the wall was a religious tract with the words "Who can be afraid if God is with us?"

Closing the door again, he set off into the forest with his armful of hoes, his visitors following behind. When he reached the encampment, he greeted his wife and sister who was pounding manioc into flour in a large wooden pestle, laid down the tools, and went off to take a rest after his strenuous day.

The visitors stayed for a while. Then the storm clouds broke and it started to pour. As they set off along the forest path back to Bodoli they could see a naked child holding a hoe in each hand, oblivious to the rain, fascinated by these new playthings. The following day they would be put to better use weeding the groundnut fields.