“We fear we will never see our husbands again”

Years of armed conflict and banditry have wreaked havoc in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR). For many in this region, especially cattle-raising communities, by far the worst threat is posed by criminals who kidnap heads of families or children for exorbitant ransoms. This often forces people to sell their entire herds to secure the release of their relatives.

Aroun Gombo is a member of the Mbororo ethnic group, for whom cattle-raising has long been a way of life. She is also one of the hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced by violence in northern CAR. She now lives in the town of Paoua, where she heads an association of Mbororo women.

“Those among us whose husbands have fled to Cameroon to save their lives would like to see them again but we fear we won’t, given what they have suffered at the hands of the bandits: killings, cattle theft, kidnapping and physical violence.

“We’ve also heard that the cattle-herders who left for Cameroon won’t come back because they are well-treated there. What’s to become of the wives who don’t want to leave Paoua to go abroad? Cameroon isn’t going to turn us into spinsters! Peace is coming now and we are going to set ourselves up in a new camp.

“We have barely managed to escape the abuses of the bandits in our various camps set up in the centre of Paoua. It all began with our husbands and children being taken hostage. We had to sell cattle to raise the ransoms. Some wives had to pay between 10 and 12 million CFA francs, depending on the number of hostages, so many of us have no cattle left.

“Even when ransoms were paid the bandits sometimes killed cattle-herders or their children. Many of us women have no husband, most of us are widows, even me. Thanks to the help of the Danish Refugee Council we have some small businesses, selling fritters, or cooking oil, or we farm a bit; but all of us want to become cattle-raisers again, it is our vocation.”

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