CAR, Chad refugees spill into Cameroon-UNHCR
Source: Reuters
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Up to 30,000 refugees fleeing conflicts in Chad and the Central African Republic have crossed into east Cameroon prompting the United Nations Refugee Agency to open an office there to help them, a UNHCR official said on Thursday.
The office will be located at Meiganga, a town not far from Cameroon's eastern border with the Central African Republic, said Jacques Franquin, a UNHCR representative in Yaounde.
Expected to open in January, it will cater for 25,000 to 30,000 refugees from the Central African Republic and Chad scattered over a large area of Cameroon, whose shared border with the two countries stretches 200 km (125 miles).
Rebellions in east Chad and north Central African Republic, linked to the long-running conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and combined with local bandit activity, have led refugees to flee across the frontiers of these interlocking African states.
Locating the refugees in east Cameroon to register them has proved challenging as they live in the bush, Franquin said.
"Most of these people are nomadic Mbororo who are escaping harassment from CAR rebels and fugitive Chadian forces who helped bring (Central African Republic President) Francois Bozize to power," he said.
"The rebels, but also armed bands and increasingly highway robbers, frequently attack them, seize their cattle, abduct their children and demand ransom," Franquin added, saying the Mbororo were perceived as wealthy because they owned cattle. He said the UNHCR would initially work with a Canadian charity to provide the refugees with non-food items such as blankets and water containers, but might later supply food aid, healthcare, education for children and seeds to grow crops.
Franquin said Cameroon had tightened security on its side of the border by deploying more police and soldiers. But he expected the number of refugees to grow.
"We are going to establish a sort of watchtower on Cameroon's eastern border and be ready to act because the situation in CAR and Chad is still very volatile," he said. On Tuesday, the U.N. World Food Programme appealed to the international community for $11 million to support its operations to provide urgent food aid to thousands of villagers in northwest Central African Republic who had fled violence.
World Food Programme officials called the situation there "a humanitarian crisis in one of the most forgotten corners of the world."
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