Ad Hoc Update #2: New influx from the Central African Republic to the DRC
Format
SITUATION
Elections: Presidential and legislative elections were held in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Sunday 27 December 2020 in a tense security context. Several armed groups who called off a ceasefire decided to merge into a single entity, called the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) and resume their military operations against the Government. The opposition fears massive electoral fraud to reelect President Faustin Archange Touadéra and called for the postponement of the vote. Results are expected on 19 January 2021 with eventually a second round to take place on 14 February 2021.
Central African refugees are living in makeshift shelters and struggling to care for their families in hard-to-reach areas close to the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Some 164,000 more are displaced inside CAR. In DRC, conditions are dire with many refugees still sleeping in makeshift shelters, the Associated Press reported Thursday. They have little or no access to drinking water, sanitation, and food, it added.
Some have been welcomed in host families, and reports indicate that up to three refugee families are living in a single small home.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has said in response that it was implementing the biometric registration of the refugees to establish the number of new arrivals and to identify people with specific needs or vulnerabilities. Over 65,000 refugees living in very remote and hard to reach areas have been registered so far, it explained.
Content provided by Last updated: 29/01 - 13:50
As insecurity in the Central African Republic (CAR) has displaced more than 200,000 people within the country and in neighbouring states in less than two months, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning that tens of thousands are facing dire conditions.
Refugee arrivals into the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reached 92,000 according to local authorities and some 13,240 people have crossed into Cameroon, Chad, and the Republic of Congo, since violence erupted in December 2020 ahead of CAR’s general elections. Refugees continue to arrive.
Some 100,000 people remain internally displaced inside CAR, according to figures compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).