【2019年2月18日 ニューヨーク/バンギ（中央アフリカ）発】
中央アフリカ共和国政府と武装勢力が和平合意に署名したことに際して、ユニセフ（国連児童基金）事務局長ヘンリエッタ・フォアは、和平合意で約束した子どもの権利の保護を直ちに実行に移すことを求める以下の声明を発表しました。
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![[RELEASE OBTAINED] On 2 August 2018 in the Central African Republic, Pierre Mbassissi plays while waiting for his follow up appointment in the outpatient treatment programme at the Centre de Santé Saint Joseph, on the outskirts of Bangui. Pierre’s mother died soon after he was born three years ago in 2015. He lives with his father, Prosper, sister and grandmother in a little village outside Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Pierre’s father doesn’t have a job, their lives have been ripped apart by ongoing conflict in the country, every day is a struggle to find enough food to eat. Surviving mostly on dwindling supplies of corn that they could collect from a nearby farm, Pierre’s weight began to drop. By July 2018 he had been falling sick repeatedly, refusing to eat becoming frighteningly emaciated. Worried that he couldn’t pay to go to the hospital, his father had been trying treat him with traditional medicine, but he kept getting worse. Pierre, who is 3.5 years old, weighed just 9kgs and he had severe diarrhoea. Fearing little Pierre was about to die Prosper walked the 12km to the nearest health facility, carrying an emaciated Pierre in his arms. “When I was walking, I was praying on the way, I didn’t know if I was going to get to the hospital with Pierre alive. Even if I made it I didn’t know if he would make it. I wondered if it god’s plan was to send this child with only the plan to take him back. I was not crying because I am a man and I didn’t want to shed tears but I was worrying on the inside.” Once they entered the health centre, which receives support from UNICEF, doctors rushed to stabilise Pierre. “I was surprised that there are so many people that were working to help my child,” Prosper remembers. “When we got to the health centre everyone ran to him. I was not sure we were going to take him home alive.” The next day there was no sign that Pierre was getting better. He was almost unconscious becau](https://www.unicef.or.jp/jcu-cms/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/20190218_CAR-250x167.jpg) |
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© UNICEF/UN0248783/Le Du |
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バンギ郊外の村の保健センターで、栄養不良の治療を待つ3歳の男の子。(2018年8月撮影) |
中央アフリカ共和国政府とその他の紛争当事者が和平合意に署名したことは、この国の子どもたちのための永続的な平和とより良い将来への希望に向けた歓迎すべき第一歩です。
私たちは特に、子どもたちの権利を保護し、子どもたちへの深刻な暴力を終わらせるという約束を歓迎します。しかし、約束だけでは十分ではありません。今こそ、行動に移すべきです。
あまりにも長い間、暴力、政情不安、そして慢性的な開発の遅れが、この国の子どもたちの人生を滅茶苦茶にしてきました。子どもの3人に2人が人道支援を必要とし、4人に1人が避難民あるいは難民として生きることを余儀なくされ、何百万人もの子どもが学校に行けず、栄養不良に陥り、病気に罹りやすく、虐待や搾取の被害に遭いやすくなっています。
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