admin | September 21, 2015
Attempts to foster reconciliation in the Central African Republic could be derailed before the upcoming presidential election. Many refugees who fled to neighbouring states after a 2013 coup are still unable to cast votes in the election.
About 470,000 Central Africans, 10 per cent of the population, live as refugees in Cameroon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chad is the only country among the four which has signed an agreement with the UN refugee agency and the CAR government, allowing measures such as voter registration to be put in place. DRC has said it will not sign the document. Congo-Brazzaville has yet to give an opinion. Talks are still under way in Cameroon.
To read the article in full, go to: http://www.irinnews.org/report/101995/vote-limbo-for-central-african-refugees
Photo: CAR refugee women at the Mborgene camp in eastern Cameroon.
Credit: Monde Kingsley/IRIN