Sam Ounja refugee camp in Central African Republic
• I would argue that Darfuri refugees in Central Africa Republic are the world’s most forgotten people; they have had no humanitarian assistance for four years. A recent dispatch from Radio Dabanga provides grim details:
Insecurity, lack of aid kill Darfur refugees in CAR’s Bembere camp
Radio Dabanga (BEMBERE / SAM OUNJA, 11 July 2-14) – The Darfuri refugees in the Bembere camp in the Central African Republic (CAR) are facing an extremely difficult security situation. The situation in the Sam Ounja camp is “relatively safe.” “The rampant insecurity forced aid organisations to withdraw. Now that we do not receive food aid anymore, people are starving. This week, Jawahir El Nur (6) and Abdel Rahman Hussein (60) died, and Hamra Yahya miscarried as a result of severe malnutrition”, Sheikh Abdel Rahman Ismail, the head of Bembere camp reported to Radio Dabanga. “During the past week, women of the camp were threatened when they were collecting firewood, 13 goats were stolen at gunpoint, and several camp residents were assaulted.”
In the Sam Ounja refugee camp in CAR, near the Sudan-CAR border, locally known as the Abu Sanjo camp, humanitarian aid stopped four years ago. One of the camp elders described to Radio Dabanga the living conditions at the camp. “The about 1,800 camp residents who fled the violence in Darfur seven years ago, are surviving without any health care, educational services, or humanitarian aid. Since aid was suspended nearly four years ago, they have been making their living by craftworks.”