Dara - HRI

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Not even a pin

Central African refugees flee from their homes

Silvia Hidalgo

“We had to escape - we couldn’t even take so much as a pin with us,” explains Amine, representative for one of the displaced villages that fled the attacks of the zaraguinas. The zaraguinas are infamous groups of bandits known as “road blockers” that patrol the north-western part of the country. “They took everything, attacking and kidnapping anyone who couldn’t manage to escape.” They terrify the population and often are better equipped than the security forces.

A woman’s heart-broken eyes reveal the depth of her tragedy. She mourns the killing of six children at the hands of the zaraguinas. They fled to the forest and walked for days until they reached Baoro, where they have been trying to survive since November. They have no intention of returning and now they live exposed to the elements. They have lost everything except their lives. Yet even though they have absolutely nothing, stripped of all their belongings, fear for their lives prevents them from even thinking about returning. Many of their villages have been burnt down.

Eight-year-old Yannick comes up to us and shows us his notebook. He opens it to reveal notes from math class. His face reveals a mixture of achievement and hope. The displaced children in Baoro no longer go to school. They have lived through the trauma of displacement and dispossession and cannot return to normality and integrate. With over three thousand children who need schooling, the facilities of the town of Baoro, and the country’s fragile and inadequate educational system cannot meet their needs. Assistance for the displaced in Baoro comes from the World Food Programme, which provides them with basic food rations in monthly handouts. The displaced have to rely on the local population for all their needs, including the means to cook the food they receive. “We don’t have pots and pans, beds or mosquito netting. We don’t even have soap,” laments a woman. However, with a sudden bright smile, she happily shows us her three-month-old baby daughter whom she gave birth to in the forest when she fled from the zaraguinas during the night. “She has survived.”

One of the greatest challenges for humanitarian organisations in the Central African Republic is logistics and managing to meet the needs of the affected population, which is scattered across a country the same size as, or even somewhat larger than France. The humanitarian response in the country is inadequate and completely uncoordinated with efforts geared toward restoring security, the possibility of return and livelihood recovery. In the Baoro area, near Bouar, the World Food Programme is practically alone in providing aid, with only the support of the Bouar Archdiocese mission. Mercy Corps has just arrived and will work mainly in the very necessary key sector of water and sanitation. In other areas, the situation is very different and affected persons receive other types of aid apart from food. In Bossangoa, for example, UNICEF has distributed mattresses, mosquito netting, jerry cans and soap. In other areas they have managed to provide schooling for displaced children, who justly deserve their right to education.

The Central African Republic has over 200,000 displaced persons and a million people with basic humanitarian needs. The humanitarian response to this hidden crisis, with affected persons spread across a relatively large territory, has proved to be complex and disproportionate.