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UNHCR-led team visits destroyed ghost town of Birao in Central African Republic

News Stories, 27 March 2007

© UNHCR/N.Rost
A man looks around his destroyed house in Birao, hoping to salvage something. Most of the town's inhabitants fled after an attack by militants in early March and only a few are back.

BIRAO, Central African Republic, March 27 (UNHCR) – UN agencies and non-governmental organisations visited remote Birao in the far north-east of the Central African Republic (CAR) at the weekend and found the town in ruins and almost empty some three weeks after it was attacked by a militant group.

The UNHCR-led team visited Birao and the border town of Am Dafok to assess the situation in the area following the March 3-4 attack by the Union des Forces Démocratiques pour le Rassemblement (UFDR), which had also raided the town last October 30 and held it until ousted by government troops on November 27.

After the March attack, almost the entire population of 14,000 fled. The fighting was intense and devastating for Birao's inhabitants. More than 700 houses were burned, destroying vital stocks of food and seeds for the coming planting season.

The joint mission found that while some of the town's residents were slowly starting to return and had begun to reconstruct their homes, others were too afraid to come back. Some residents have fled to Am Dafok at the border with Sudan and some 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants of the region have sought refuge in Sudan's Darfur region, where they are being helped with basic supplies by a joint UNHCR/NGO team.

"This is only the latest in a number of incidents that have forced massive numbers of civilians away from their homes," said Bruno Geddo, UNHCR's representative in CAR and head of the assessment mission. "Nevertheless, many of the displaced who remain in the CAR seem determined to come back to Birao as soon as they have gathered material to rebuild their houses."

Ramadane was among the few returnees. "I've lost 17 sacks of millet," he said, pointing to the blackened grains lying around his devastated house. "I took my family to a small village where we could stay with relatives. When we came back, everything was destroyed."

Another resident, who gave her name as Elise, said she only came to get food from her house during daylight hours. She said she was too afraid to stay overnight.

An estimated 212,000 people have been driven from their villages in the CAR. Another 70,000 have fled to Cameroon, Chad and now also to Sudan. Most of them have fled since September 2005, when the north-western town of Markounda was attacked by another militant group. House burning is common from Ouham-Pendé prefecture in the north-west of the country to Vakaga prefecture in the north-east.

UNHCR is conducting a campaign to raise awareness among the authorities of conflict-affected areas and to sensitise members of the security and armed forces on the basic human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Five workshops have already been organised in the capital, Bangui, and the north-western towns of Bossangoa and Bozoum together with other humanitarian agencies.

UNHCR, together with NGOs working in CAR, is distributing clothing, mosquito nets and some basic household items to the displaced. However, there are major logistical challenges in assisting them as most are scattered in villages or in the bush.

In order to assist survivors of violence, UNHCR is putting in place a system to provide psycho-social and medical follow-up, including for victims of sexual violence, in Nana Grébizi prefecture in central-northern CAR. Through a network of humanitarian observers in the north-west, UNHCR is also closely monitoring the human rights situation and displacement movements.

Other humanitarian organisations in CAR, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Rescue Committee, Solidarités, Médecins Sans Frontières, Caritas and Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), are involved in providing health care, drinking water, education and food, to address the urgent needs of the displaced population.

By Nicolas Rost in Birao, Central African Republic

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Silent Success

Despite being chased from their homes in the Central African Republic and losing their livelihoods, Mbororo refugees have survived by embracing a new way of life in neighbouring Cameroon.

The Mbororo, a tribe of nomadic cattle herders from Central African Republic, started fleeing their villages in waves in 2005, citing insecurity as well as relentless targeting by rebel groups and bandits who steal their cattle and kidnap women and children for ransom.

They arrived in the East and Adamaoua provinces of Cameroon with nothing. Though impoverished, the host community welcomed the new arrivals and shared their scant resources. Despite this generosity, many refugees died of starvation or untreated illness.

Help arrived in 2007, when UNHCR and partner agencies began registering refugees, distributing food, digging and rehabilitating wells as well as building and supplying medical clinics and schools, which benefit refugees and the local community and promote harmony between them. The Mbororo were eager to learn a new trade and set up farming cooperatives. Though success didn't come immediately, many now make a living from their crops.

Mbororo refugees continue to arrive in Central African Republic - an average of 50 per month. The long-term goal is to increase refugees' self-reliance and reduce their dependency on humanitarian aid.

Silent Success

Crisis in the Central African Republic

Little has been reported about the humanitarian crisis in the northern part of the Central African Republic (CAR), where at least 295,000 people have been forced out of their homes since mid-2005. An estimated 197,000 are internally displaced, while 98,000 have fled to Chad, Cameroon or Sudan. They are the victims of fighting between rebel groups and government forces.

Many of the internally displaced live in the bush close to their villages. They build shelters from hay, grow vegetables and even start bush schools for their children. But access to clean water and health care remains a huge problem. Many children suffer from diarrhoea and malaria but their parents are too scared to take them to hospitals or clinics for treatment.

Cattle herders in northern CAR are menaced by the zaraguina, bandits who kidnap children for ransom. The villagers must sell off their livestock to pay.

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