Number of Central African refugees soars as violence intensifies

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for the immediate end to all violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) as nearly 60,000 people have been forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries since December, a two-fold rise in just one week.

Most have fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), across the Ubangui River, where the number of arrivals topped 50,000 after 10,000 Central African refugees arrived in a single day on 13 January.

Some 58,000 people are still displaced inside CAR’s affected regions, according to the Population Movement Commissions, and nearly 9,000 refugees have arrived in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad, and the Republic of Congo this past month.

UNHCR commends neighbouring governments for continuing to grant Central African refugees access to territory and asylum despite border restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNHCR and partners in CAR are gathering reports of abuses by armed groups, including of sexual violence, attacks on voters and pillaging.

UNHCR is calling for an immediate return of all parties to meaningful dialogue and progress towards peace.

The events of the last month – since reports of election-related violence began – reverse the trend of recent years of Central African refugees returning home.

UNHCR and its partners are scaling up assistance for the new arrivals, despite poor infrastructure hampering the humanitarian response.

UNHCR was already seeking $151.5 million this year to respond to the CAR situation. The needs of the recently displaced Central Africans are mounting, and we will soon face a substantial funding shortfall.

We call on the international community to urgently expand support to the CAR humanitarian response to allow more aid to reach those in remote areas.

For more information on this topic, please contact:

• In Bangui, Stella Fatime, fatime@unhcr.org, +236 7555 8464
• In Dakar (regional), Romain Desclous, desclous@unhcr.org, +221 786 396 385
• In Geneva, Boris Cheshirkov, cheshirk@unhcr.org, +41 79 433 7682
• In Kinshasa, Johannes Van Gemund, gemund@unhcr.org, +243 817 009 484
• In N’djamena, Simplice Kpandji, kpandji@unhcr.org, + 235 6859 3060
• In New York, Kathryn Mahoney, mahoney@unhcr.org, +1 347 443 7646
• In Pretoria (regional), Helene Caux, caux@unhcr.org, +27 82 376 5190
• In Yaounde, Xavier Bourgois, bourgois@unhcr.org, +237 690 049 996

Originally published by UNHCR on 15 January 2021