The campaign is publishing a series of first-person accounts of people who have been forced to flee their homes in the Central African Republic.

Clarissa with one of her surviving sons.

Clarissa Dendoubou is from a small village in north western CAR, about 40 kilometres from the border with Chad. Her peaceful life with her husband and 7 children was torn apart one Saturday morning in February 2003.

Read Clarissa’s story here

Background

The government and armed opposition have stepped back from the brink of civil war in the Central African Republic and an uneasy and uneven peace has come to the country. Violations of the peace agreement are frequent, banditry and increasingly fragmented armed groups are continuing to spread fear.

Tens of thousands of CAR’s displaced population – both within the country and beyond its borders – have started to return home, only to find their houses destroyed and their fields overgrown. Some are returning under duress, some of their own free will.

And alongside this pattern of returns in questionable circumstances, new displacements are still taking place – this very mixed pattern is expected to continue in 2009 and into 2010.

It’s essential that the needs of CAR’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are prioritised as the country prepares to move into the next stage of early recovery, that’s what this advocacy campaign on IDPs is here to do: to work with media and humanitarian partners to draw attention to the plight of the most vulnerable victims of the civil war in this country.

Campaign website

Please check back on our campaign page as we add stories and photos from displaced communities around the country.