WFP, UNHCR increasing efforts to assist refugees

In Equateur province of northwestern DRC, WFP announced plans to assist 25,000 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) currently in and around the rebel-held town of Zongo, with an average of 390 mt of food per month, while UNHCR plans to build a refugee camp at Mole, 44 km inland. The efforts follow a failed coup attempt in late May against President Ange-Felix Patasse that caused tens of thousands of Central Africans to flee the capital of Bangui, many crossing the Ubangui river into the DRC. According to the BBC, few have returned due to fears of retribution as well as CAR’s border closing with DRC in July to stop the cross-border flow of arms and rebels. However, the settlements housing the refugees in Zongo are struggling to cope. “We’ve got enough problems of our own. Refugees are sleeping in the schools which are due to open soon,” Mayor of Zongo Hubert Levi was quoted by the BBC as saying. The population of Zongo town alone, previously 15,000, has almost doubled, according to the BBC, and families are living in tents along the town’s main streets and next to the river, while every empty house has been rented out and the inns and hotels are full. “There has been a suspected outbreak of meningitis in the town. Scabies, malaria and diarrhea are rampant and we are running out of medicines,” Dr Paulin Lisimo, head of sanitation for the Zongo region, told the BBC. Ethnic tensions in CAR have caused the fear of retribution among the refugees, most of whom are of the Yakoma ethnic group, the same as former military ruler and opposition leader, Andre Kolingba, who admitted he was behind the May insurgency. “The presidential guard started killing the Yakoma, whether they were involved in the coup or not,” one refugee told the BBC, who noted that the southern Yakoma people have traditionally dominated the country’s government, army and civil service. According to the BBC, when Patasse became the first northerner to take power in 1993, he was unable to replace them with members from his own Sara tribe because of their technical expertise; as a result, the loyalty of the country’s ruling elite has always been questionable. During May’s coup attempt, there were widespread reports of summary executions and harassment of the Yakoma. Although the CAR government has said it will guarantee the safety of the Yakoma, human rights activists remain wary, according to the BBC. “They are still scared. Yakoma people are being threatened on a daily basis,” Theophile Sonny of the Human Rights Observatory in Bangui was quoted by the BBC as saying.