About 45,000 refugees lived in Cameroon at the end of 2000, including more than 40,000 from Chad, nearly 2,000 from Congo-Kinshasa, and some 1,000 refugees from various other countries.

About 2,000 refugees repatriated from Cameroon to Chad during the year.

Some 2,000 Cameroonians applied for asylum in Europe during 2000.

Refugees from Chad

Armed insurrections in Chad during the past 30 years produced waves of population displacement. Tens of thousands of Chadians fled to Cameroon and settled into local communities where they became self-sufficient. About 3,000 Chadian refugees lived in a designated camp located about 400 miles (about 640 km) from the capital.

A 1998 peace agreement ended low-level violence in southern Chad and created favorable conditions for repatriation. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began a voluntary repatriation program for Chadian refugees in 2000. Although UNHCR initially estimated that 20,000 Chadians in Cameroon would choose to return home, only 2,000 actually repatriated during the year.

The returnees traveled to Chad in eight convoys after receiving water containers, food, and vaccinations. Funding constraints on UNHCR eliminated other assistance planned for returnees. At year's end, another 7,000 Chadians had registered for repatriation, but had not returned.

Refugees from Congo-Kinshasa

Nearly 1,000 refugees from Congo-Kinshasa (also known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire) arrived in Cameroon toward the end of 1999 as part of an operation arranged by the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the International Organization for Migration to resettle the refugees abroad. Most of the refugees were ethnic Tutsi Congolese who had been detained for a year by their own government during their country's civil war.

About 600 of the Congolese refugees departed Cameroon during 2000 for permanent resettlement in the United States. Thirty refugees were transported to Canada for resettlement there.

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