Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Cameroon's CAR Refugees Reluctant to Return Home

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE - Cameroon says only a tiny fraction of the 285,000 Central
   African Republic refugees in the country have agreed to return to the
   CAR. Despite a February peace deal and months of negotiations with
   Cameroon and the United Nations refugee agency, refugees say they do
   not feel safe enough to return home.

   Forty-nine-year-old Florence Yaomby's husband was killed in crossfire
   between rebels and government troops in the Central African Republic
   town of Mingala four years ago.

   She fled to Cameroon for safety, where she has lived as a refugee ever
   since.

   She says she spent her last three years studying in Yaounde to become
   an accountant. Yaomby says if she returned to the CAR, she is not sure
   she would find a decent job. She prefers to sell bottled water and soft
   drinks to university students in Yaounde, where there is peace, and
   take care of her three kids. They are certain not to get a good
   education in her country, says Yaomby, because it is devastated by war.

   The CAR has been rocked by violence since 2013 when mainly Muslim
   Seleka rebels ousted then-President Francois Bozize, prompting
   reprisals from mostly Christian militias.

.