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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 28 August 2006

GAMBIA-SENEGAL: UN assesses conditions of displaced on border

DAKAR, 28 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are investigating reports that thousands of people recently fled into The Gambia from unrest in Senegal’s southern Casamance region.

Gambian authorities told a UN inter-agency assessment mission to the border region last Friday that 3,740 people had crossed into 23 villages in The Gambia from 16-23 August because of fighting between Senegalese troops and rebels from the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC).

The influx of people appears to have stopped, Roseline Idowu, the Dakar-based regional representative for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), told IRIN on Monday.

She said the ICRC in conjunction with the Gambian Red Cross were investigating the figures on the displaced further this week as it was unclear how many people who were registered by Gambian authorities were fleeing danger or were simply going about their daily lives.

“We want to make sure they are not coming for economic reasons,” Idowu said. “We want to make sure that it’s not the usual coming and going that is occurring.” She said that children cross the border daily from Casamance to attend school in Gambian villages and women cross over to receive antenatal and postnatal care.

Idowu said families who were hosting the displaced said it was the lean period between the planting and harvesting seasons and they feared running out of food soon. About 75 people were sheltered in a primary school and a vocational center, she said.

There is also some internal displacement within Casamance, said Idowu.

She said UN agencies were hoping to meet with Senegalese authorities this week to find out the name of the villages where Senegalese troops had been deployed.

Casamance is separated from the rest of Senegal by the sliver of land that makes up The Gambia. The MFDC took up arms against the Senegalese government nearly 25 years ago, claiming the region was marginalised. The government and MFDC reached a peace agreement in December 2004 but some hardliners have refused to give up the fight.

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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006