Mia Farrow, an award-winning actress and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador, briefed journalists at UN Headquarters in New York on 27 February 2007 about her visit to Central African Republic and Chad.

Mia Farrow at UN Headquarters UN photo/Mark Garten

She described the people in those countries as "utterly neglected", stating that she had seen "burnt village after burnt village after burnt village" during her trip, which started in Bangui, the capital and largest city of Central African Republic.

"The population was extremely traumatized and largely lived in the bush", Ms. Farrow said, and the humanitarian crisis relief was "noticeably absent". She added: "It's been called the forgotten crisis, but that doesn't imply it was once remembered. I don't know that it has been in the consciousness of the international community." She recalled how after her vehicle stopped, some 300 people came out of the bush "like spectres just caked in dust, emaciated", and hesitantly came forward with hope of getting aid. Through talking to them, she found out that they were "too terrified to return to rebuild their villages and were going to stay in the bush until they felt secure". On hearing a non-UN vehicle approached, they all ran back. "You could hear the pounding of the feet on the hard clay ground as 300 people vanished into the bush in sheer terror."

Comparing it to her trip in November 2006 to east Chad as UNICEF Ambassador, Ms. Farrow described it as "ominously quiet". She saw 60 villages burned in one week, with a "tremendous displaced and wounded population". She noticed that people had been moved to makeshift camps with insufficient water and food supplies. And with the impending rainy season, "aid workers are really struggling to meet the needs of this very fragile and increasingly abandoned population". These people are desperately in need of humanitarian assistance, she said, adding that UN organizations should be more present in the affected areas.

"It is an insecure situation and it is very hard to blame aid agencies when we are asking them to do the thing that the entire international community has turned away from", Ms. Farrow said, adding that the UN agencies, including UNICEF, are resolved to do more. "I cannot underline how dangerous, how volatile and difficult the situation is for the aid workers and the population who live there." Ms. Farrow also called on the United Nations to send in an international peacekeeping force to Sudan's border with Central African Republic and eastern Chad. "I urge you with all my heart to do what you can to help these people, who, even in their lowest moment and though they did not know me, thought to inquire about my well-being", Ms. Farrow wrote in her online blog upon returning from her trip.

In his latest report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that "eastern Chad is facing a multifaceted security and humanitarian crisis, which includes ongoing clashes between government forces and Sudan-based Chadian rebels, cross-border attacks on civilians by Sudan-based militia, the presence of Sudanese rebels on Chadian territory, ethnic violence, internal displacement, inter-communal tensions and banditry". He has proposed that the Council send an 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission to eastern Chad to protect civilians and deter cross-border attacks.