UN agency seeks more funds for refugees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Central African Republic (CAR), which also covers neighbouring Chad, requires an additional US $7 million to help CAR refugees living in southern Chad and to repatriate others from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an official told IRIN on Tuesday. "We realised that there were needs that had not been taken into account in the 2003 budget," Emile Segbor, the agency's representative for CAR and Chad, said. The request is part of a $14 million appeal by the agency's Geneva headquarters for emergency operations in seven African countries: the CAR, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and Uganda. Segbor said that 40,000 CAR refugees reached southern Chad early 2003, after the agency had established its 2003 budget in December 2002. Thousands of people fled the country when fighting broke out between government and rebel troops in October 2002. Many went to southern Chad. The war ended when former Army Chief of Staff Francois Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse on 15 March. Only a few of the displaced people have returned to their homes since the coup. Insecurity persists in the north of the country, where most of the fighting took place. No programme has been laid down for the repatriation of the refugees in southern Chad. However, a government commission overseeing the return of refugees has announced that after the repatriation of refugees from the DRC and the Republic of Congo, it would send a mission to southern Chad to reassure the refugees. Segbor said funds his agency was seeking would also be used to repatriate 1,300 DRC refugees who had demanded voluntary repatriation.