At the same time that UNHCR is registering 10,500 new refugees from the Béhili area in north west CAR, a substantial number of Central African refugees are returning from Chad to the area of Moyenne Sido and Kabo, only 50km east of Béhili. These returning refugees fled the Central African Republic during 2002 and 2003, and were living at Yaroungou camp in Chad.

In Moyenne Sido, people are constructing hundreds of grass huts

Over the past few days, a site with thousands of people – between 3,000 and 5,000 – constructing hundreds of grass huts has sprung up just outside Moyenne Sido. When a humanitarian assessment team visited Moyenne Sido on 22 February, not a single hut had been finished. The site measures about 100ha and has been prepared by the local Central African Red Cross with 150 volunteers. There are no latrines, water points, health posts, schools or any other infrastructure on the site, and people on the site have to use the very limited infrastructure of Moyenne Sido.

Other returnees have moved further southwards, to their home villages. In the nine villages on the road to Kabo, about 2,200 returnees are busy reconstructing their houses but say that there is not enough grass to cover the roofs. For now, many have to sleep in the open.

In Kabo, a town of 11,000 people, another 1,146 returnees mostly live with family or friends

Refugees continue to return to Kabo on a daily basis, albeit in small groups. Most of the returnees live with family or friends in Kabo; only a few found their houses are still usable, though in need of repair. They say they need plastic sheeting and agricultural tools so that they can re-start working their fields at the beginning of the rainy season. The mayor said there was enough land for returnees, but that housing and employment was a problem.

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CAR Refugees in Chad encouraged to become self-sufficient again

According to their testimonies most of the refugees left the Yaroungou camp in south Chad because the harvest in 2007 was bad as the rains weren’t as strong as usual, and that the land is generally worse in Chad than in CAR. UNHCR is helping refugees in the Yaroungou camp to become self-sufficient after more five years in exile, shifting the focus from assistance to development projects, including seeds and tools distributions, other agricultural projects, vocational training, and a micro-credit scheme, managed by Africa Concern. UNHCR also continues to distribute food to 1,855 of the most vulnerable.

Click here to see photos from the IDP site in Kabo

For further information, please contact:
Nicolas Rost
Associate Humanitarian Affairs Officer
UN-OCHA CAR
Email rostn[at]un.org