In Birao, in northeastern CAR, women and children have been particularly affected by what they nervously call “the events”, the fights between the rebel forces of the Movement of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and the government forces.

In a previous post, we published letters from women who were victims of violence and recalled their personal and family experience. This time, Children are talking about the attacks. Under the supervision of social workers, they told their stories and drew the scenes they witnessed.

13 year old boy

I ran from Birao to Roukoutou. We crossed a river and once there, there was nothing to eat. We suffered a lot. So we learned to fish and hunt. We stayed there for 45 days before we came back to Birao. Continue Reading »

In Birao, in northeastern CAR, women and children have been particularly affected by what they nervously call “the events”, the fights between the rebel forces of the Movement of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and the government forces.
In their own words, the women of Birao talk about the attacks on their villages, their escape, their pain and their memories.

First woman

“During the battle, I was giving birth. I took my daughter on my back and walked until Am Dafock… I reached Am Dafock at night. In the morning I had given birth… a baby boy. My husband went the other way. Me, I took the children of my dead brother. Three boys. Their mother went back to her parent’s.” Continue Reading »

The town of Birao, in the extreme north east of CAR, close to the border with Sudan, was almost completely burnt down in late March. Thousands of people fled in the bush. Some families are now very slowly starting to return to restore their houses, afraid of the approaching rainy season.

Photographer Pierre Holtz has returned to Birao to document the life of children in the destroyed city. The violence they witnessed and experienced left them often with deep emotional scars and psychological trauma. They have to live with almost no basic infrastructure, in burnt houses, with no furniture, without schools and almost no remaining food stocks. The NGO Triangle is now present in Birao, distributing food with the support of WFP. MSF has been providing medical services. UNICEF and other United Nations agencies are coming to help the people in the Vakaga region.

© UNICEF | Pierre Holtz