Refugees attempt to go home

Refugees who fled to southern Gambia to escape fighting in the Casamance region of Senegal have been trying to visit their villages to see if it is safe to return home, UNHCR said on Tuesday. However, some have returned to The Gambia after finding their houses destroyed. Others, UNHCR reported, said Senegalese troops who had taken up positions in their villages warned them to stay out of the area. Thousands of people have been displaced following fighting since 1982 between the pro-independence Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) and government troops. A series of peace accords, the last of which was signed in March, have not ended the conflict. UNHCR said over 3,500 people left their homes over a three-week period after fresh fighting broke out in mid-May. Many settled in dozens of small villages along the border with The Gambia. Some 2,000 refugees later returned voluntarily to their homes. Gambian authorities asked the UNHCR to transfer the remaining 1,500 to a transit camp some 70 km north of the border. However the refugees have been reluctant to leave and want to stay as close as possible to their home villages. Over the past two weeks representatives from UNHCR, NGOs and government agencies have visited host villages in southern Gambia and found that many families were short of food after sharing their limited resources with refugees who have spontaneously settled in the area. The next harvest is not until October. Casamance is largely separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia. The MFDC says that the region was never a part of Senegal during French colonial rule and so is entitled to decide on its independence.