U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2000 - Congo-Brazzaville

About 25,000 citizens of Congo-Brazzaville were refugees at the end of 1999, including approximately 10,000 in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa and 15,000 in Gabon. As many as 500,000 Congolese were internally displaced.

Congo-Brazzaville hosted some 40,000 refugees at year's end, including an estimated 20,000 from Angola, 15,000 from Congo-Kinshasa, and about 5,000 from Rwanda.

Approximately 50,000 refugees repatriated to Congo-Brazzaville during the year, at least 200,000 internally displaced persons returned home.

Pre-1999 Events in Congo-Brazzaville

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

Armed conflict 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. Appeals for UN peacekeepers at the time were rejected by the United States in the UN Security Council.

The warfare 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; and 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 ruins.

In late 1997, Sassou-Nguesso and his supporters routed Lissouba's troops and wrested control of the government. The democratically elected Lissouba, however, vowed to continue to fight for political control of the country.

In 1998, troops loyal to President Sassou-Nguesso mounted stronger counter-attacks. Violence peaked in mid-December, forcing between 200,000 and 300,000 people from their homes and destroying neighborhoods in southern Brazzaville city, where Lissouba and his insurgents allegedly received support. Up to 6,000 people died in the carnage, according to one estimate.

1999 Warfare

Intense combat continued during the first half of the year, as government forces battled myriad militia groups for control of southern Congo-Brazzaville. The government regained control of most southern areas by November and flushed rebel forces toward the Gabon border.

Rebel militias cut power and railroad lines, causing severe water and food shortages in the south. The northern region of the country, however, remained unaffected by the fighting.

In August, President Sassou-Nguesso offered amnesty to all combatants who would renounce violence and lay down their weapons. The government and various rebel leaders signed cease-fire agreements in November and December. A tenuous peace prevailed at year's end.

Population Uprooted

Violence continued to produce a massive flight of people from their homes in 1999. An estimated 800,000 people – half of the country's 2.7 million population – were internally displaced during the year, according to UN estimates. As many as 80,000 civilians fled to neighboring countries at least temporarily.

The vast majority of the 200,000 to 300,000 people forced from their homes in Brazzaville in late 1998 fled to Pool, the southern province adjacent to the capital. Approximately 30,000 uprooted residents from southern Brazzaville city gathered at more than a dozen sites in the capital's northern neighborhoods, which remained untouched by the violence. A disproportionate number were women, children, and the elderly. Tens of thousands of displaced people fled to Point Noire, the country's second-largest city. The majority found shelter with the local population.

Aid agencies that evacuated when war resumed in late 1998 began to return in March 1999. Like much of the capital, they suffered extreme looting. Aid workers had little access to areas of the country outside of Brazzaville and Point Noire for most of the year because of security concerns.

Displaced families and local rural populations lived in similar difficult conditions. Both lacked adequate food and medical care. Many were victims of rape, looting, and extortion by armed combatants.

A joint assessment by the UN and the Congolese government in April found that Dolisie and Nkayi, two major southern towns between Brazzaville and Point Noire, were virtually deserted. Their combined pre-war population of 120,000 remained in the forest after fleeing intense combat early in the year. Dolisie lacked water, electricity, and health care. Conditions remained precarious as small numbers of displaced persons began to return home in mid-year.

Cautious Return and Reintegration

Rebel groups prevented displaced civilians from returning to government-held areas for much of the year and denied humanitarian aid to thousands of people in need. Aid agencies reported that militia groups were holding the civilian population "hostage."

The government authorized the return of displaced persons and refugees to southern Brazzaville city in May. Although authorities appealed for the return of civilians to areas under its control, a U.S. State Department report on human rights conditions noted that, "in practice government forces' continued extortion, rape, and summary execution of returnees undermined this message until late in the year, after cease-fire and reconciliation accords were concluded."

Credible reports alleged that pro-government forces summarily executed suspected rebels among both the displaced population and returning refugees. As refugees began to return home on their own from Congo-Kinshasa in May, security forces separated an unknown number of young men from their families. Seventy-four remained unaccounted for at year's end. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) increased its monitoring of returning refugees as a result of these allegations of disappearances and abuse.

UNHCR signed a formal agreement with the governments of Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa in April, specifying that UNHCR would facilitate the voluntary return of refugees to Congo-Brazzaville but also advise the refugees that security in their country was unreliable. UNHCR facilitated the repatriation of more than 40,000 refugees from Congo-Kinshasa in 1999. As many as 10,000 refugees returned home on their own without UNHCR assistance.

An estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons returned to Brazzaville city during the second half of the year. The Congolese army transported many back to their home areas. As many as 1,500 to 2,000 people a day returned to the capital. Their extremely poor physical condition raised concerns about the health of internally displaced persons who remained in hiding. Relief agencies reported that many were so weak after months in the forest that they died during the trip home or soon thereafter.

Humanitarian needs increased exponentially with the growing number of returns. In June, the World Food Program appealed to donors for 3,500 tons of food per month to assist more than 200,000 people.

In response to 40 percent malnutrition rates among young children – including 20 percent severe malnutrition – relief agencies such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Action Contre la Faim, and Caritas established feeding centers. Water and electricity were restored to parts of southern Brazzaville by June. In southern areas of the country, the conflict prevented more than 40 percent of school-aged children from attending school, according to the country's parent-teacher association.

An MSF report in October decried the "unbearable silence of the international community" toward the "forgotten war" in Congo-Brazzaville. The report accused the military, pro-government militia, and armed opposition rebels of massive atrocities against the civilian population and perpetrating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the country.

As aid workers gained sporadic access to parts of the countryside, and as returning refugees and displaced persons told their stories, the magnitude of humanitarian suffering caused by the war became more apparent. As a result, aid agencies increased their estimates of the number of displaced people late in the year even though security improved and many more people were returning home.

At year's end, approximately 400,000 rural residents and an estimated 100,000 people from urban areas remained displaced.

In the capital, the national university re-opened for the first time since late 1998. Reconstruction of destroyed homes continued. Businesses in the heavily damaged southern part of the capital re-opened. Although the security situation in the capital returned to normal, the political climate remained tense at year's end.

Angolan Refugees

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.

Approximately 700 Angolans repatriated to Cabinda in 1999. UNHCR provided transport and reintegration assistance to the returnees such as tents, seeds and tools.

Rwandan Refugees and Asylum Seekers

About 15,000 Rwandans who fled their country in 1994 went first to Congo-Kinshasa and then, in mid-1997, entered Congo-Brazzaville. Suspicions that militiamen who participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide were among the refugee population raised doubts about how many Rwandans were genuine refugees warranting assistance.

About 1,500 Rwandans repatriated during 1997. More than 1,000 others left Congo-Brazzaville that year for nearby Gabon. The remaining Rwandan population in Congo-Brazzaville was "under the care" of UNHCR pending interviews to assess each individual's claim to refugee status.

In mid-1998, government officials identified areas in Congo-Brazzaville where the Rwandan asylum seekers could eventually resettle. As UNHCR prepared to conduct interviews to screen the population, thousands of Rwandans left the camps, reportedly either to escape poor conditions or to avoid the screening procedure.

Violence in Congo-Brazzaville in late 1998 prevented UNHCR from conducting individual status determination for the Rwandans. 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, and instead permitted Rwandan militiamen from the camps to join government forces in Congo-Brazzaville's civil war.

The outbreak of war in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa in August 1998 prompted about half the Rwandans to leave their camps in Congo-Brazzaville to fight in Congo-Kinshasa's civil war.

At the beginning of 1999, approximately 7,000 Rwandans remained in Congo-Brazzaville, at three designated sites. In February, UNHCR announced plans to phase out its assistance to Rwandans in Congo-Brazzaville because of the intensifying war and the "militarization" of the camps.

"It became evident that neither a proper screening for status determination nor voluntary repatriation to Rwanda were feasible," UNHCR reported in September. UNHCR created a "categorization" plan to identify Rwandans who were most likely to deserve refugee status.

UNHCR determined, after registering and categorizing some 7,000 Rwandans, that 5,500 Rwandans qualified for local settlement assistance. UNHCR concluded that the remaining 1,500 – primarily single males aged 20 to 50 – were probably former Rwandan soldiers or militiamen and therefore "excluded" them from receiving UNHCR's local integration assistance. The latter group, however, were free to settle permanently in Congo-Brazzaville without UNHCR's help.

The Congolese government endorsed UNHCR's categorization process. In early December, UNHCR transported the first group of about 300 Rwandan settlers from one refugee camp to two villages some 300 miles (500 km) north of Brazzaville city. UNHCR provided the refugees with kits to build basic shelters. UNHCR also planned to provide health centers and other basic infrastructure to villages chosen to receive the Rwandan refugees.

UNHCR planned to continue the local integration program in 2000.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers from Congo-Kinshasa

Approximately 15,000 refugees from Congo-Kinshasa fled to Congo-Brazzaville during 1999 because of on-going war in their own country. As many as 2,000 armed combatants fled with them, but they eventually returned to Congo-Kinshasa, according to diplomats.

The refugees lived dispersed in villages along a 190-mile (300 km) stretch of river in northern Congo-Brazzaville. Much of the area remained extremely insecure and inaccessible at year's end, hampering relief operations and making exact estimates of the refugee population impossible. UNHCR provided some humanitarian assistance, such as fishing nets and material to build temporary shelters, to some of the most vulnerable refugees.