In Cameroon, CAR Refugees “Malnourished By Their Flight”

For tens of thousands of Central African refugees, the flight from unrelenting slaughter at home often involves traveling many days across their vast country without food and overcoming armed attackers, said a US official on Thursday.

When they finally cross the border into safer grounds in Cameroon, children, the elderly and adults alike are in “very, very bad shape”, said Anne Richard, US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

Richard said UN officials were “much more concerned” about the situation of refugees fleeing into Cameroon because their plight was “heightened” compared to that of those moving to Chad – where food was in short supply and housing poor.

“Often in a crisis, small children and the elderly end up in precarious situations. In this case, [UN staff] saw adults who were malnourished from their flight. That is unusual – that shows a degree of crisis that we do not see in the refugees coming across into Chad.”

The UN estimates that more than a million people have so far been forced out of their homes and are now either internally displaced people or refugees in neighboring countries. Since December, 110, 000 new refugees have arrived in neighboring countries. While Cameroon and Chad appear to report the largest influxes, some refugees have moved into Congos.

Richard recently met and talked with refugees and officials in Chad and the Central African Republic. She got a sense of the situation in Cameroon after meeting with UN officials who had been in the country.

“[UN staff] had seen refugees who had walked across the Central African Republic and over that time had not gotten sufficient food and had been attacked as part of their travels,” she said. “So as they came across the river to reach Cameroon, they were in very, very bad shape.”

She said, “the US Government remains deeply troubled by the conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic.”

So far, The US has provided USD 67 million to deal with the humanitarian crises in CAR and neighboring countries and plans to give more, Richard said. It has also committed up to 100 million dollars to transport, equip and train African-led International Support Mission or MISCA and to support French forces supporting MISCA; and 7.5 million dollars for conflict mediation and human rights programs.

By Eugene N Nforngwa