Children bear brunt of CAR crisis

Mikaila sat alone near the middle door in a poorly lit room at the center of Gado-Badzere refugee camp in eastern Cameroon. That morning, he was wearing an oversized football jersey that exposed only parts of tiny arms and legs.

He was expressionless, gazing into nowhere with wide eyes. His head had only a scanty amount of hair. A colorless mucous dripped from his nostrils.

Outside, a UNICEF official called out for his mother, but language stood between him and the groups of women crouched under stunted trees. “This child is severely malnourished,” said the UNICEF official, Gwanael Rebillon, to no one in particular. “I need to know if he is on treatment.”

White huts with large UNHCR logos and countless open-air firesides sprawled haphazardly in every direction. Towards the main entrance a man shouted the names of new arrival into a hand-held speaker unit. A queue formed outside the food bay.

Throughout the camp, children like Mikaila need urgent treatment. Hundreds have been arriving here since last year’s coup d’état sparked a relentless slaughter that has forced hundreds of thousands for flee the Central African Republic.

Over the past month, Central African refugees have been arriving Cameroon in very bad shape – severely malnourished and dehydrated from their flight, says the UNHCR.

Mikaila and his family trekked and hide in the forest for five months before arriving at the border, said his mother, a 25 year old woman with seven children.