Newly-discovered group of displaced Central Africans need urgent aid – UN agency

The United Nations refugee agency today highlighted the plight of a group of over 2,000 displaced civilians who are living in a previously inaccessible and remote area of northern Central African Republic (CAR) and are in urgent need of food, water and health care.

Months of insecurity had prevented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from gaining access to town of Kabo and surrounding villages, located some 400 kilometres north of the capital, Bangui.

But UNHCR staff, who were part of an inter-agency mission to the area last week, found the internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in what they called “appalling conditions,” agency spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told a news conference in Geneva today.

“These internally displaced people, who are mainly ethnic Ngamas from Kabo, said they were forced to leave their homes, fleeing attacks by various armed groups since last November and again in April this year,” he reported.

Living conditions in the area are dire, he said, noting that the displaced, who are living in mud huts, have very limited access to safe drinking water and in some places they are forced to drink water in the open fields, along with their livestock.

They need food as crops have been destroyed by locusts or stolen by armed bandits, Mr. Mahecic added, and they are exposed to serious health risks due to a lack of water and sanitation facilities.

“The IDP communities appealed for access to clean drinking water, food, education, Government protection from the armed cattle raiders and generally more security, in addition to plastic sheeting for temporary shelter while they are rebuilding their houses,” he stated.

UNHCR – which has been supporting IDPs in the Kabo area since 2007 – also heard reports from the group about widespread cases of rape, killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and destruction of property.

The IDPs said these atrocities have been mostly perpetrated by the armed cattle raiders, but also by bandits and other armed groups in the area including government soldiers.

Despite progress made last year with the Government embarking on a national dialogue and the signing of a peace agreement with rebel groups, CAR remains beset by violence and widespread displacement in the north.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that more than 1 million people – a quarter of the population of the small, impoverished nation – have been affected directly or indirectly by the effect of conflict. They include 125,000 IDPs and 137,000 refugees living in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.