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UNHCR's Ruud Lubbers begins Central African tour

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers began a four-nation tour of Central Africa on Sunday to highlight the problem of refugees and displaced people in the continent. The trip began in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Sunday, followed by the Republic of Congo on Monday evening. Lubbers is due to move on to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda before completing the week-long tour. An official from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Monday that the tour would afford Lubbers an opportunity to see refugees' problems in the region first-hand, as well as to gather information about the various peace initiatives in progress, and on political, social and economic developments. "At a time when the world's attention is focused on Afghanistan, efforts to create safe conditions for the return of millions of refugees and displaced people in Africa should not be neglected," Lubbers said in a statement. "I want to remind the international community that we need to lend support to peace initiatives in Central Africa and the Great Lakes region," he said. Following meetings on Sunday with government, UN and aid agency representatives, Lubbers visited a camp at Molangue, about 110 km southwest of the CAR capital, Bangui, AP reported. The camp houses over 2,500 refugees who have fled from conflict in the DRC. "The UNHCR's goal is the repatriation of the Congolese refugees," AP quoted Lubbers as saying at the camp. Lubbers had also discussed the plight of CAR's estimated 23,000 refugees, stranded in the DRC since an attempted coup in May 2001, an official from the UNHCR office confirmed. Most of the refugees belong to the Yakoma ethnic group, to which the opposition leader, Andre Kolingba - whom President Ange-Felix Patasse blamed for the May coup - also belongs. The refugees fled the country, fearing reprisals. The UNHCR official confirmed to IRIN that talks between the UNHCR and the government on the repatriation of the refugees were in progress. Once the conditions of guaranteed safety, security and dignity demanded by the refugees had been met, they would be able to return. The official said Lubbers had been very supportive of the efforts being made in the CAR to stabilise itself, with peace initiatives and the ongoing talks on refugee repatriation. UNHCR estimates that there are 13.1 million refugees and internally displaced people in Africa. CAR hosts about 50,000 refugees who have fled from conflict in Rwanda, DRC, Chad and Sudan, according to AP.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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