UN allowed to use Oubangui for refugee repatriation

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will repatriate refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) using the Oubangui river which, besides serving as the border between the two countries, has been closed to human traffic since September, a senior UNHCR official said on Monday.

"I received assurances from President Francois Bozize that the border will exceptionally be opened whenever the UNHCR asks for it for refugee repatriation," Kamel Morjane, the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner, told a news conference in the CAR capital, Bangui, at the end of a two-day visit to the country.

Morjane, who was accompanied by UNHCR head of the Great Lakes region Ursila Aboubacar, toured Camp Molangue, 120 km south of Bangui, which hosts thousands of Congolese refugees. He also held talks with several senior government officials.

He announced the plan to use the Oubangui to repatriate refugees a day before some 300 Congolese refugees were due to leave the country. He said repatriation by plane was costly while most of the 7,000 refugees in the country were from the DRC's northwestern province of Equateur, which was easily accessible by crossing the Oubangui.

The CAR administration closed its border with the Congo in September after it was reported that unidentified armed people were planning to attack the country from the DRC to sabotage national reconciliation talks that were due to start that month. The talks were held between 15 September and 17 October.

Morjane, who later left Bangui for Ndjamena, capital of Chad, said that 2004 would be a year of "massive voluntary repatriation of refugees". He said that positive developments in Africa - in countries such as Angola, Burundi, DRC, Liberia and Sudan - would prompt many refugees to return home.

However, regarding some 41,000 CAR refugees who have been in southern Chad since March, Morjane said conditions were yet to be met for their repatriation. He said he had asked the CAR administration to restore security in the north, where most of the refugees came from, and to revive government and community services there.

Regarding the situation of the 50,000 refugees from various countries who are in the CAR, Morjane said they had all been able to live harmoniously with local communities "except for some 240 refugees from Rwanda who face some difficulties".