UN agency distributes food to 2,530 returnees

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) began a food distribution on Tuesday to 2,530 former refugees who returned to the Central African Republic (CAR) in June from northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, an official told IRIN. "Only women are allowed to report to the distribution sites," David Bulman, the WFP representative in the CAR, said on Tuesday. He added that the returnees would receive the food rations for 90 days. The 128 mt of food to be distributed comprises maize, split yellow peas and vegetable oil, to be distributed from two sites in the capital, Bangui, where most returnees settled. Bulman said a Christian women’s association, the Reseau des Femmes Croyantes Mediatrices de la Paix, was undertaking the distribution. One of the leaders of the women's association, Helene Ngonzi, told IRIN on Tuesday that the fact that women were distributing food to other women made things smoother. The association was also involved in WFP food distribution to victims of the October 2002 incursion of the rebels loyal to current leader Francois Bozize. At least 2,500 CAR refugees, who had lived in two northern DRC camps for two years, returned home in June and July. Mostly from the Yakoma ethnic group of former President Andre Kolingba, they fled the country in June 2001, after Kolingba attempted a coup against President Ange-Felix Patasse. The returnees, who include former soldiers and their families, had not received any food aid since coming home. Antoinette Gueret-Leke, 66, returned from Mole Camp in June with her eight children. She reported at Ouango distribution site on Tuesday to receive food rations for nine people. "I was a fish seller before fleeing," she said. "When I came back I had no money to resume selling fish." Gueret-Leke said that before the WFP aid, her family had only received one mattress and a paraffin lamp from by the Roman Catholic charity, Caritas. She said her family had settled in a house that was partly destroyed by a rocket in May 2001. Bulman said only those who came from the DRC were receiving aid. He said those who recently returned from the Republic of Congo would be considered later.