Congo-Brazzaville hosted some 125,000 refugees
at the end of 2000, including an estimated 100,000 from Congo-Kinshasa,
some 20,000 from Angola, more than 5,000 from Rwanda, and approximately
1,000 urban refugees from various African countries.
More than 20,000 citizens of Congo-Brazzaville
were refugees and asylum seekers at year's end, including some 15,000
refugees in neighboring Gabon, about 5,000 in Congo-Kinshasa, and more
than 2,000 new Congolese asylum applicants in Europe. Up to 30,000 Congolese
remained internally displaced.
An estimated 10,000 refugees repatriated to Congo-Brazzaville during 2000. Some 500,000 internally displaced Congolese also returned home.
Political Background
Ethnic-based political violence has destabilized Congo-Brazzaville for almost a decade.
Following disputed elections in 1993, the country suffered three civil wars in six years. In 1997, President Sassou-Nguesso, a northerner, overthrew the country's democratically elected leader, Pascal Lissouba, a southerner, sparking another deadly cycle of north-south violence. The conflict featured a wide array of armed combatants: Angolan government troops; Angolan rebel forces; exiled soldiers from Rwanda, Congo-Kinshasa, and Central African Republic; alleged international mercenaries; and myriad militia groups allied with warring politicians.
By 1999, violence had claimed an estimated 20,000 lives and displaced as many as 800,000 people - nearly one-third of the country's 2.7 million population. The capital was in ruins, and what remained of the country's infrastructure was severely damaged. At the end of 1999, warring factions signed cease-fire agreements after President Sassou-Nguesso offered amnesty to all combatants willing to renounce violence and lay down their arms.
At the outset of 2000, a tenuous peace prevailed. Despite the slow pace of disarmament, the cease-fire held. The national army gradually began to redeploy throughout the country. By April, government soldiers and former rebels were conducting joint patrols in some areas. A cease-fire monitoring committee, charged with implementing the terms of the 1999 agreement, regularly visited areas still under militia control to encourage disarmament. State administration of rural areas expanded as local civilian authorities returned.
Humanitarian access dramatically improved. Hundreds of thousands of displaced persons had returned home by mid-year. In June, the UN noted that "the speed and momentum of these events is impressive. The year 2000 has become a tremendous opportunity - a chance to begin rebuilding a durable peace."
Stability had returned to most parts of the country by year's end. Parts of the north, however, were adversely affected as the war in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa continued to spill over the border and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into Congo-Brazzaville.
The main obstacles to permanent peace in Congo-Brazzaville at the end of 2000 remained the reintegration of ex-combatants and militias, disarmament, and lack of progress on an all-inclusive "national dialogue" to map out a transition period and set a date for a presidential election.
Return and Reintegration
Congo-Brazzaville made enormous progress toward restoring normal daily life and embarked on ambitious reconstruction during 2000.
At the beginning of the year, some 500,000 Congolese remained uprooted, including approximately 15,000 refugees in Gabon, up to 20,000 in Congo-Kinshasa, and large numbers of displaced across Congo-Brazzaville. The vast majority returned home, en masse, during the first four months of the year.
By March, only the areas of Mossendjo and Niari in the southwest remained under militia control, where aid agencies estimated some 50,000 displaced and war-affected civilians needed assistance. In April, the last of four sites for internally displaced persons in the capital closed and the last refugees from Congo-Brazzaville remaining in Congo-Kinshasa returned home with assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Several thousand Congolese refugees in neighboring Gabon spontaneously returned home, without assistance, during the year.
In June, a UN report stated that despite lingering tensions, "The past six months have seen dramatic changes in the humanitarian situation." Local and international aid agencies gained access to areas of the country that had been cut off from the capital, Brazzaville, because of violence and lawlessness. Many families immediately began cultivating their farms after returning home. Malnutrition rates declined.
"There are dramatic needs for clean water and other basic services. Schools need to be rebuilt in every community," a UN report stated. UN agencies appealed to international donors for $28 million to help re-establish essential services such as education and health care, support agriculture and income-generating activities at the community-level, and promote human rights and reconciliation efforts.
Fifteen international aid agencies were operating in the country by mid-year. Many opened offices in severely war-affected areas in the south, such as Mindouli, Sibiti, Mossendjo, and Dolisie.
In July, a UN assessment found acute needs for shelter and health care. Children under age 5 continued to suffer high rates of sickness and death because of the flight of qualified medical personnel, destruction of primary health services, and prevalence of rape among women and girls during the war. The maternal mortality rate was estimated at 810 per 100,000 live births, among the highest in the world. Médecins Sans Frontières increased public health and training initiatives. The International Committee of the Red Cross provided medicines to 18 health clinics. Other relief agencies expanded their health services during the year.
Improved humanitarian access also increased agricultural assistance to war-affected areas in the south. Aid agencies distributed seeds and tools, and the World Food Program (WFP) continued to provide food supplements to some 120,000 people. "Although the security situation...has improved significantly, many civilians have no access to food, and even when it is available in markets it is too expensive for many people to buy," a WFP official stated.
By October, all areas of Congo-Brazzaville were accessible to humanitarian agencies except parts of the north where insecurity linked to the war in Congo-Kinshasa prevailed. In November, the International Monetary Fund approved a $14 million credit to support the government's reconstruction and recovery program.
At year's end, up to 30,000 people remained internally displaced, according to UN sources. An additional 20,000 Congolese refugees remained in neighboring Gabon and Congo-Kinshasa.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Congo-Kinshasa
At the beginning of the year, Congo-Brazzaville hosted about 15,000 refugees from Congo-Kinshasa who had fled their country's civil war in 1999. The intensification of the war in Congo-Kinshasa forced tens of thousands more refugees to flee into Congo-Brazzaville during 2000. By year's end, UNHCR estimated that some 100,000 refugees from Congo-Kinshasa remained in northern Congo-Brazzaville.
The refugees lived scattered along a 500-mile (800 km) stretch of river in northern Congo-Brazzaville. UNHCR's efforts to provide humanitarian relief were severely hampered by the area's remoteness, insecurity, and the spillover effects of the war in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa. Repeated military attacks took place along the river separating the two countries, threatening refugees and aid workers alike.
In May, several UNHCR staff members on an inter-agency humanitarian assessment mission were arrested on the river by government forces from Congo-Kinshasa; one was severely beaten. The staff members were released after 11 days in detention.
In July, 40,000 to 60,000 more refugees fled fighting in Congo-Kinshasa into northern Congo-Brazzaville. By September, UNHCR estimated that some 85,000 refugees were seeking shelter among the local population, and had exhausted local food supplies. Exact estimates of the refugee population were impossible because of poor access to the region.
In November, improved security allowed UNHCR to deploy an emergency team to Betou, near the country's northern border with the Central African Republic, to assist some 25,000 refugees in the area. By year's end, UNHCR estimated that approximately 100,000 refugees were living among an overwhelmed local population.
In October, some 400 government troops from Congo-Kinshasa fled among the refugees to Congo-Brazzaville. Government officials disarmed them and separated them from the refugees. They were not repatriated by year's end. Refugees complained of local military harassment and lack of official refugee identification cards.
Three UNHCR field offices in the north struggled to provide refugee populations with shelter materials, blankets, household items, seeds, and tools. Frequent insecurity along the river because of the war in Congo-Kinshasa repeatedly forced UNHCR to suspend its operations. Lack of roads and other logistical difficulties severely limited the transportation of relief supplies and relief agencies' regular access to the vast majority of refugees. UNHCR appealed for an additional $4 million late in the year to increase the agency's capacity to respond to the crisis.
Rwandan Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Most of the estimated 5,000 Rwandan refugees remaining in Congo-Brazzaville fled their country in 1994, first to Congo-Kinshasa and then to Congo-Brazzaville in mid-1997. Suspicions that militia who participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide were among this refugee population raised doubts about how many Rwandans were genuine refugees warranting assistance. Some of the Rwandan asylum seekers joined warring factions in Congo-Brazzaville's civil war, compounding UNHCR's concerns.
In 1999, UNHCR concluded that "neither a proper screening for status determination nor voluntary repatriation to Rwanda were feasible," for this population. UNHCR created a "categorization" plan to identify Rwandans who were most likely to deserve refugee status.
Following a census, UNHCR concluded that 1,500 Rwandans - primarily single males aged 20 to 50 - were probably former Rwandan soldiers or militiamen and therefore "excluded" them from receiving UNHCR's local integration assistance. They were, however, free to settle permanently in Congo-Brazzaville without UNHCR's help. UNHCR determined that some 5,000 Rwandans fell under the UNHCR mandate and deserved international protection and local integration assistance.
The Congolese government endorsed UNHCR's categorization process and local integration project. The project provided for health centers and other basic infrastructure to Congolese villages chosen to receive the Rwandan refugees.
At the end of 1999, UNHCR settled the first group of about 300 Rwandans. During the first three months of 2000, UNHCR settled more than 2,000 additional Rwandan refugees in 16 villages in the Loukolela area, 300 miles (500 km) north of the capital. Refugees received three-month food rations, seeds and tools, materials to build temporary shelters, and basic items such as blankets, pots and pans, buckets, and soap.
An additional 2,800 Rwandans remained in a refugee camp in Kintele, 15 miles (25 km) north of Brazzaville, at year's end. According to UNHCR, there was not enough land for the government to allocate for their local integration.
Angolan Refugees
Most of the estimated 20,000 Angolan refugees in Congo-Brazzaville fled years ago from the northern Angolan enclave of Cabinda, where sporadic fighting has occurred.
The majority of Angolan refugees lived in the city of Pointe-Noire and supported themselves without direct assistance. Approximately 3,000 Angolans lived in three settlements outside Pointe-Noire, where they received aid. In 2000, UNHCR provided micro-credit and agricultural assistance to refugees remaining in settlements in order to improve their self-sufficiency and help them to integrate into the local community. UNHCR gave priority assistance to refugees who were willing to relocate to two settlements located farther away from the border where security was better and fertile farm land was available.
Copyright 2001, USCR