UNHCR looks into new displacement

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees sent a mission to The Gambia on Tuesday to take stock of possible population displacement following an announcement last week by the Senegalese army that it had launched security operations in Casamance, a UNHCR source told IRIN on Wednesday. The Senegalese army announced last weekend that it had begun an operation to curb increased insecurity and banditry in Casamance, an area in southern Senegal that borders on The Gambia. The Senegalese daily Sud Quotidien reported on Monday that the operation began on Friday in the department of Bignona. The French news agency, Agence France Presse, on Wednesday reported Gambian national television as saying that over 1,000 Casamance residents had crossed into The Gambia over the weekend. The secretary-general of the Gambia Red Cross, Andrew Jarjue, told IRIN on Wednesday that about 1,709 people had sought refuge in The Gambia in the past two months, excluding this weekend's arrivals. Women and children accounted for 80 percent of the displaced, he said. Like the new arrivals, the previous caseload had been displaced by fighting between the Senegalese army and the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). The MFDC is an armed group fighting since 1982 for self-determination for Casamance, which is partly separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia. Jarjue said the recent influx had overstretched the Gambian Red Cross, which had appealed for funds to assist them. "What they need most apart from food is shelter," Jarjue said, adding that many lived in the open "and it's a matter of luck that the past few days have seen no rain". The Red Cross official said such population displacements were usual and short-lived. He expected the newly displaced persons to begin returning home within two weeks once calm returned to the area. A Gambian police source said the bulk of the displaced refused to be registered and housed in refugee camps because they claimed to have relatives to live with. The source said most were living in villages along the Senegal-The Gambia border.