OIC: Muslim refugees in Cameroon face bad humanitarian conditions in camps

WAM DOUALA, 22nd May 2014 (WAM) --- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday said Muslim refugees who fled the bloody violence and conflict in the Central African Republic to Cameroon complain of bad humanitarian conditions including a large number of snakes, mosquitoes and diseases that kill their children.

OIC Humanitarian Alliance, the organisation's week-long fact-finding mission to the Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroon, said it received the complaints during its field visits to Muslim refugees in the camps in areas adjacent to Cameroon's northern border with the Central African Republic. It also met with local officials of the concerned countries to discuss the other urgent needs of refugees including the lack of food, medicine, drinking water, tents and shelters.

In Cameroon alone, some 150,000 refugees live now in a dozen of camps scattered along the border with the Central African Republic, said OIC in a press release.

Displaced by the violence in Central African Republic, the Muslim refugees had to walk tens even hundreds of kilometers on foot until they found refuge at one of the ten major camps along the 1000-kilometre border with Cameroon.

Abu Baker, a farmer who was displaced from an area near the capital Bangui said he and his family walked through the forests for one and a half months until they reached a refugee camp in Cameroon, according to OIC.

Fatima, another refugee who made it to one of the camps 23 days ago said she had not have any main meal for two weeks.

OIC says it expects more humanitarian organisations to join its alliance, while it is preparing an integrated programme of humanitarian intervention and providing emergency assistance to those affected by the crisis in Central Africa.

The OIC humanitarian mission follows a decision by the organisation's Executive Committee emergency ministerial meeting, on 20 February 2014 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to assess the dangerous situation on the ground and to show solidarity with the Muslim population who fell victim to the violence and serious human rights violations in the Central African Republic.

OIC says the bloody violence in the Central African Republic has displaced more than a million Muslims, and the capital Bangui has been 'purged of Muslims' and only a few thousand of them are still in the city following the killings and the looting of their property.

WAM/MMYS