U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1999 - Congo-Brazzaville

Some 20,000 refugees from Congo-Brazzaville were in neighboring Congo Kinshasa at the end of 1998. An estimated 250,000 people in Congo Brazzaville were internally displaced.

Congo-Brazzaville hosted some 20,000 refugees at year's end, the vast majority from Angola. About 5,000 Rwandan asylum seekers with undetermined status lived in refugee-like circumstances in Congo Brazzaville.

Pre-1998 Events in Congo-Brazzaville

Ethnic-based political violence has destabilized Congo-Brazzaville several times since 1993. Violence first erupted in 1993 over disputed election results, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead in the capital, Brazzaville.

Armed fighting recurred in 1997, primarily pitting democratically elected President Pascal Lissouba, a southerner, against political rival Denis Sassou-Nguesso, a northerner. Nguesso and his supporters in the sparsely populated north have historically dominated the national government.

The fighting in 1997 reportedly involved a diverse array of combatants: Angolan government troops, Angolan rebel forces, exiled soldiers from Rwanda, Congo-Kinshasa, and Central African Republic, international mercenaries, as well as the personal militias of Lissouba and Sassou-Nguesso.

Full-scale warfare in the streets of the capital during 1997 killed an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people and uprooted nearly three-quarters of a million. Artillery battles left the capital in ruin.

In late 1997, Sassou-Nguesso and his supporters routed Lissouba's troops and wrested control of the government. Lissouba, however, vowed to continue the conflict.

Some 250,000 persons remained uprooted at the end of 1997.

1998 Warfare

Political leaders and their armed militias continued to fight each other for political control of the country during 1998, creating new bloodshed and uprooting tens of thousands of families in southern areas of the country.

In March, insurgents backing the ousted Lissouba faction seized a major hydroelectric dam southwest of the capital, cutting electricity to the country's second major city, Pointe Noire. As violence intensified in and around Brazzaville, troops loyal to President Sassou-Nguesso mounted stronger counter-attacks, including use of artillery against Brazzaville city neighborhoods believed to support Lissouba and his insurgents.

Violence peaked in mid-December, forcing a massive flight of people from their homes. Two neighborhoods in Brazzaville were virtually destroyed and heavily looted. An estimated 1,000 or more people died in the carnage. Sassou-Nguesso remained in power as the year ended.

Early 1998: Return and Reintegration

The year began with a cautious trend of reintegration.

The vast majority of Congolese uprooted in 1997 returned home in late 1997 and early 1998. An organized repatriation program initiated by UNHCR in November 1997 assisted some 18,000 refugees to return home from Congo-Kinshasa to Congo-Brazzaville by March 1998. An estimated 20,000 additional refugees repatriated without assistance.

Many returning refugees received food aid for one to three months and free medical care to ease their reintegration. A government commission stated in February that persons displaced by the original 1993 violence should be able to reoccupy their homes. Businesses in the heavily damaged capital gradually began to re-open. Repair of damaged homes proceeded slowly, however, because of widespread poverty.

International relief agencies – forced to evacuate during the 1997 violence – gradually resumed limited aid programs in the first half of 1998, focusing on housing needs, agricultural support, and health conditions. UN aid agencies appealed to donor nations for $23 million to assist Congo-Brazzaville.

Only half of the residents in the country's two main cities had access to clean drinking water, and fewer than 20 percent had access to properly constructed latrines. Health workers recorded nearly 2,000 cholera cases and child malnutrition rates of up to 9 percent.

Many residents of Brazzaville city reportedly guarded against the threat of renewed violence by keeping their children at safe locations outside the city. A survey in March indicated that school attendance was only 15 percent of normal in areas of Brazzaville hardest hit by the 1997 violence.

Late 1998: New Displacement

Reconstruction and reintegration abruptly halted in the second half of the year when intense combat resumed in and near the capital.

Some 20,000 people fled to Brazzaville city in August to escape warfare in nearby rural areas. Violence soon intensified in Brazzaville, however.

An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people fled their homes in southern neighborhoods of Brazzaville city when violence peaked there in December. Combatants and looters intentionally destroyed entire neighborhoods. The massive displacement in southern areas of the country left the city of Nkayi virtually empty.

Some residents of the capital fled to nearby rural villages; others fled to northern parts of the capital city where violence was less intense. Up to 40,000 people fled to neighboring Congo-Kinshasa, including about 20,000 citizens of that country who had been working or visiting in Congo-Brazzaville.

Displaced families gathered at about 20 main sites in northern Brazzaville city. An estimated 50,000 people sought shelter in the city's churches, schools, and abandoned buildings. The shelters housed a disproportionate number of women, children, and the elderly. Some private homes provided shelter for up to 60 displaced people.

Troops aligned with the government entered camps for displaced persons in December and apprehended at least two dozen young males seeking refuge there. Other militia groups reportedly detained uprooted families or stopped them from reaching safer areas. Uprooted families in rural areas of the south lived in forests, where limited food and heavy rains created additional hardships.

Insecurity prevented international aid workers from assessing the rural population's humanitarian needs during the last third of the year. In the final days of 1998, WFP prepared to deliver its final stocks of relief food stored in the country and rushed to arrange new aid flights into Brazzaville city if security conditions permitted.

Refugees from Angola, Various Countries

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 Pointe-Noire and supported themselves without direct assistance. About 6,000 Angolans lived in three settlements outside Pointe-Noire, where they received aid. More than half of the refugees in the three camps were children, according to UN officials.

Information about the effects of Congo-Brazzaville's war on the Angolan refugees was unavailable. The war, however, forced some 3,000 refugees of various nationalities to flee their homes in the capital, Brazzaville, during 1997-98. UNHCR was attempting to relocate and re register the urban refugee population in Brazzaville city until violence erupted there again in the final weeks of 1998.

Asylum Seekers from Rwanda

About 15,000 Rwandans who fled their country in 1994 went first to Congo-Kinshasa and then, in mid-1997, entered Congo-Brazzaville. Doubts immediately arose about many of the Rwandans' right to refugee status because of suspicions that many of the Rwandans participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

About 1,500 Rwandans repatriated during 1997 aboard UNHCR sponsored flights. More than 1,000 others left Congo-Brazzaville for nearby Gabon. UNHCR reported in late 1997 that the remaining Rwandan population in Congo-Brazzaville was "under care" of the refugee agency pending individual interviews with each Rwandan to assess their claims to refugee status. Status determination interviews did not occur in 1997, however.

At the start of 1998, some 10,000 to 12,000 Rwandans lived at four sites in Congo-Brazzaville. One site, near the capital city, housed about 3,000 people. Other sites were located in less accessible northern regions of the country. Some 240 unaccompanied minors under age 16 resided at the various sites. WFP provided nearly 2,000 tons of food.

In mid-1998, government officials identified areas in Congo Brazzaville for the eventual permanent resettlement and integration of the Rwandan asylum seekers. UNHCR announced in April that interviews to screen the population would soon begin. Some Rwandans immediately left the camps, either to escape the poor conditions or to avoid the screening procedure.

Violence in Congo-Brazzaville during the last half of 1998 prevented UNHCR from conducting the screening. UNHCR warned that many Rwandans in Congo-Brazzaville possessed weapons and urged government officials to disarm the population. The government did little to confiscate weapons, however.

Some Rwandans took up arms and fought in Congo-Brazzaville's war, according to international diplomats in the country.

The outbreak of war in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa in August prompted about half the Rwandans to leave their camps in Congo Brazzaville to fight in the Congo-Kinshasa war. Representatives of the Congo-Kinshasa government visited the camps in Congo-Brazzaville to persuade the Rwandans to do so. Approximately 5,000 Rwandans joined the fighting in October-November.

"We are...concerned about reports that thousands of Rwandans have moved or are moving from the camps in the Republic of Congo" into Congo Kinshasa, the U.S. government stated. "We call upon the government of [Congo-Brazzaville] to take all necessary steps to ensure that this movement stops."

Approximately 5,000 to 7,000 Rwandans remained in Congo Brazzaville at the end of 1998, most living at three designated sites. Their refugee status remained undetermined.