The head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi arrived in the country on Tuesday, April 20. On Wednesday, it went to an area cut off from the world, in northern Congo-Kinshasa, where almost 100,000 people who fled violence in the Central African Republic have sought refuge since December last year. On the ground, living conditions are difficult while the UNHCR sees its activities less and less funded on the continent.
With our special correspondent in Yakoma, Pascal Mulegwa
From the city of Gbadolite in the province of North Ubangi, Filippo Grandi took a humanitarian flight: twenty minutes in the air to reach Yakoma territory, 200 kilometers from the Central African border. It is in Modalé, about thirty kilometers from the airport, that many families were welcomed after crossing the Ubangi River aboard canoes.
“These people have suffered a lot, fortunately the Democratic Republic of Kong welcomed them with great generosity. And this is not the first time, which is important for people who have often been very traumatized, says Filippo Grandi.
Upon their arrival, they had been received by families themselves on request for humanitarian assistance.
On this site, built by the UNHCR to accommodate refugees far from their homeland, Filippo Grandi and his companions were beaten by many witnesses such as Fidèle who never recovered after losing her son during the crossing of the river.
“The uprising came suddenly. I was out in the field, they hurriedly sent children to me. They are six in number. I fled. I found a small canoe that was not in good condition. I crossed. For the third time I came to find a child, he fell into the water, he drowned. I lost a child during the flight. The war does not end today, he testifies.
A dramatic emigration therefore, but if the head of the UNHCR has come this far, it is also to initiate an appeal: “That the international community, with more decisions, will willingly help the Central African Republic to get out of this dead end of so that these citizens It is important to really create lasting conditions of stability. “
A stability that many refugees dream of. Some of them have already tried to return to the Central African Republic, but they were forced by force to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the general survival of refugees is still threatened.
Of the $ 204 million UNHCR is asking to help all refugees in the country by 2021, only 12% has been secured from donors.
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