Insecurity, lack of basic services drive thousands more from their homes

Security is absent in parts of northern Central African Republic, but so are many other basic necessities, and that is what’s driving out many of the thousands of people fleeing to Chad in recent months, newly arrived refugees say. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that some 12,000 Central Africans have fled into southern Chad from northwestern CAR since June. UNHCR has yet to verify the number after a new wave of refugees in the past two weeks. “We were frightened and our children were receiving no care at all,” Christophe Mbaidjella, who fled Bebingui village in northwestern CAR, said. “In those conditions, how do you expect us to stay there?” Some Central Africans have been sending their children to school in Chad for years for lack of schools in their villages, Beosso Roangar, chief of Kaba Roangar district a few kilometres from the border in Chad, told IRIN last week. Refugees awaiting transfer to a camp told IRIN it is a combination of a lack of the most basic services and a lack of protection that is driving them across the border. Northern CAR has long been gripped by severe unrest, rampant in a country that has seen repeated military coups and years of war. The head of UNHCR in Central African Republic, Bruno Geddo, led a UN interagency mission to Markounda – a border town in northwest CAR – last month. “Insecurity has caused an utter free-fall in the economy,” Geddo said by phone from the capital Bangui. He said while insecurity is the root cause of displacements, there is indeed a lack of proper medical care and school facilities in the region. Food is scarce because the insecurity blocks villagers from cultivating their land, he said. “The conditions do not exist for people to be able to return home [from Chad],” he added. Nine-year-old Michael Asne, dressed in a soiled and tattered shirt, told IRIN he and his family fled the Bebingui village with next to nothing. “We were in the field when we heard gunshots,” he said. “We joined other people who were running toward Chad. We had only some utensils we use for our meals in the field. We abandoned our fields, and our houses containing the little we own.” A CAR government official would not comment on conditions in the area. Parts of northern CAR have no permanent UN or international NGO presence because security cannot be guaranteed. United Nations officials in CAR declined to comment on the results of a UN security assessment carried out in the north in early August. The governments of Chad and CAR – along with Cameroon – have begun joint operations to secure the region and control the proliferation of small arms. The governments recently appealed to the international community for assistance in stabilising the tri-border area. Aid workers and UN officials say the armed groups attacking civilians are thought to be made up of common criminals as well as remnants of insurgent groups from recurring conflicts in the region. Some say the CAR government has not had the means to secure the zone. Following the recent interagency mission the UN is recommending three levels of intervention: humanitarian aid to address immediate needs, efforts to tackle the problem of insecurity, then longer-term projects to revive the economy, UNHCR’s Geddo said. Rain cuts access to thousands of refugees UNHCR in Chad has been trying for several days to reach a new group of refugees – 2,000 people according to local authorities – in the village of Bekam, inaccessible due to heavy rains that have cut off roads and a bridge. “The bridge is underwater,” Bernard Ntwari, UNHCR spokesperson, said by phone from the Chadian capital, N’djamena. “Up to now we have not been able to reach them.” The refugees arriving since June join about 30,000 Central Africans living in Amboko camp, near Gore, and Yaroungou camp, near Danamadji about 300 kilometres east, since fleeing fighting in CAR in 2002. With the thousands of refugees arriving since June, the Amboko refugee camp near Gore – where UNHCR had counted on putting the newer arrivals – is nearly saturated, forcing the need for a new camp, Ntwari said. UNHCR this week received authorisation from the Chadian government to create a new camp and on Thursday – in coordination with local authorities – identified a new site, about 10 kilometres from Amboko. It is crucial to get the refugees into camps, where they can receive food and other humanitarian assistance, UNHCR says. Their relocation is also important to local communities, who are already poor and struggling to feed themselves. Both countries are among the poorest in the world. On the UN’s human development index for 2005, released this week, Chad is ranked 173rd of 177 and CAR, 171st. Refugees told IRIN local communities have been receptive and hospitable; indeed many refugees have joined family members or in-laws in Chad. Still, strains are inevitable. As a UNHCR vehicle rode past some villagers in Kaba Roangar – which recently saw the arrival of about 200 refugees – a young man cried out, “You, HCR – I give you two days to evacuate these people from my home. Otherwise, you’re going to see them kicked out.” Most locals, though, are simply doing their best to help their displaced neighbours. Still their means do not match their hospitable intentions. Roangar, the chief of Kaba Roangar, said he is worried. “UNHCR must intervene; we are overwhelmed because our food situation was already precarious. Now we have exhausted all our stocks.” “We had only about 20 kilograms of maize left,” said a man in the village of Mballa, Chad, which has received hundreds of refugees. “But when our brothers and sisters came [from CAR], we finished our reserve in just a short time. I ask myself what is going to become of us.”