By Mark Kaye, acting
Emergency Communications Manager for Save the Children's response in Central
African Republic
As I look around the empty health post it dawns on me just
how much work is to be done here. Its four rooms are completely empty apart
from a single broken maternity bed and a dented chamber pot. There are no
medicines left, no equipment, not even a mattress.
I’m told everything of value was stolen in the aftermath of
the coup; that this area is practically lawless and that armed gangs now rule
with impunity extorting ‘tax’ from those who have already lost almost
everything with the threat of further violence.