Over 500 Central African refugees return from Cameroon

More than 500 refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) are voluntarily repatriated from Cameroon starting from this Wednesday, Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji announced.

The voluntary repatriation of the CAR refugees comes in accordance with a tripartite agreement signed on June 30 among the Cameroonian government, the CAR, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Journal du Cameroon news site reported on Tuesday.

More than 4,000 Central African refugees are expected to return from Cameroon to the CAR by the end of this year, it said.

Cameroon is currently home to over 400,000 refugees from the CAR taking advantage of capital Yaounde’s political solidarity with them, according to the website.

The CAR has been wracked by violence, since Seleka rebels ousted then President Francois Bozize in 2013.

The landlocked country, bordered by Chad, Sudan, Congo and Cameroon has witnessed fierce fighting between the Muslim Seleka and the Christian anti-Balaka rebels for the past six years. It has forced nearly half of country’s population, to migrate and depend on the humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.