Les Roberts, Clinical Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has worked extensively in countries ranging from Zimbabwe to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Today he writes about a lesser-known country– the Central African Republic:

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a little known nation in the middle of Africa with a population of only four million. The country was fleetingly in the public eye as the hunting grounds of choice of former French President Charles De Gaulle, and for the 1987 Coronation of Jean-Bedele Bokassa, an obscenely extravagant event made famous in the Werner Herzog documentary, “Echos from a Somber Empire.”

What is less easy to observe is that CAR is a land that is nearly ideal for human development. The land is fertile and plentiful, rainfall is parsed into two growing seasons, there are diamonds and gold and expanses of tropical jungle. In the North of the country, the climate is arid and a variety of animals roam in large national parks. In the South, the mighty Oubangui River forms the border while assuring plentiful water and forest parks that bring visitors from around the world to see gorillas and forest elephants. This land of agricultural and tourist potential has had one of the most politically unstable periods of post colonial independence of any African nation. Adding to the troubles is the fact that the country has borders with the conflict-laden areas of Eastern Congo, Northern Uganda, Darfur, and Chad. Over the past two decades, agricultural exports have plummeted, roads and infrastructure have decayed, and the country has evolved to be one of the world’s poorest.

Columbia University, in conjunction with UNICEF, recently conducted a survey about problems facing women and children in CAR. In the days to come, our partners at Columbia University will explore with us if CAR is presently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the opportunities of effective compassion and humanitarian response that the crisis presents.