   |
|
Misanet.com / IRIN, 31 October - An assessment team that went last week to Casamance in southern Senegal to evaluate the situation in the troubled area has decided that it was not yet secure enough for the voluntary repatriation of refugees, UNHCR official said. Marcellin Hepie, senior regional operations manager at the UNHCR Regional Office in Abidjan, told IRIN the team found that the Senegalese government had no credible counterpart on the ground to discuss the implementation of a ceasefire signed last year with the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). The MFDC has been fighting for the past 19 years for independence for Casamance, an area sandwiched - except in the east - between Guinea-Bissau and Gambia. Although the MFDC signed the ceasefire with the government of former president Abdou Diouf, there have been occasional clashes between MFDC fighters and the army. The insecurity has been compounded by cattle raids along the border with Guinea-Bissau. About two months ago, women's organisations marched in Ziguinchor, the largest town in Casamance, to demand an end to the insecurity. They also called for the return of the many people displaced from their homes, including 15,000 refugees who, Hepie said, are evenly divided between Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. The women repeated their calls in letters to President Abdoulaye Wade and Abbe Diamacoune, head of the political wing of the MFDC. The Senegalese and Gambian governments decided to work towards the repatriation, and asked the UNHCR to help. However, the assessment mission, which comprised representatives of the UNHCR, International Organisation for Migration, Senegalese government and the French Embassy in Dakar, found that the conditions were not yet right for the refugees to return. "Until all the problems are solved and a peaceful solution found, there is no way the UNHCR can carry out the voluntary repatriations," Hepie said.
|
