New displacement due to ongoing conflict and banditry

22 December 2009

Internal armed conflict between government forces and various armed groups in northern areas of the Central African Republic (CAR) caused the internal displacement of over 200,000 people by 2007. Following peace agreements, their number fell to around 108,000 by February 2009, but since then clashes between the army and a splinter rebel group, and attacks against civilians by criminal gangs, have caused new displacement. As of October 2009, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) was estimated at over 162,000, in-cluding over 73,000 people who were trying to return to their homes but had not yet found durable solutions for return.

IDPs in CAR have suffered from a range of human rights abuses, including killings, the looting and burning of villages, destruction of fields, loss of livelihoods, sexual violence, and the abduction and recruitment of children. Members of all armed groups have perpe-trated these crimes. Each wave of IDPs has been forced to take shelter in fields and forests without access to basic services, before seeking support from impoverished host communi-ties when it has been safe to do so. As of December 2009, their living conditions are very different from those of IDPs in neighbouring countries; there is only one IDP camp in CAR, and most rely almost entirely on host communities in remote rural towns.

While the government has been unable to provide assistance, it has given international hu-manitarian organisations unimpeded access to displaced communities and has allowed them to operate freely. However, reaching people in need is still a big challenge for both logistical and security reasons. Those still living in the bush have not received assistance, and given that IDPs are scattered over very large areas, strategies of “protection by pres-ence” have had only a marginal impact.

International peacekeeping forces in CAR have had little impact in areas of internal dis-placement because they have been deployed in small numbers and have been unable to en-gage criminal gangs. The latest wave of fighting highlighted the fragility of the peace process and raised serious concerns about stability in the lead-up to the presidential elec-tions to be held in 2010.

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