POPULATION-BENIN: Modern Refugee Camp Built For Asylum Seekers

By Ali Idrissou-Toure Reprint | | Print |

Ali Idrissou-Toure

COTONOU, Oct 28 1999 (IPS) - A new refugee camp, with a capacity to accommodate 1,200 persons, has been built in Kpomasse, about 40 kilometers southwest of the Beninois capital of Cotonou, for asylum seekers from around Africa.

Built on 11 hectares donated by the Beninois government, the centre is a permanent structure which cost 903 million CFA francs, financed in large part by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

One US Dollar is equal to 600 CFA francs.

Besides the government’s contribution of land, the state-run Beninois Water and Electricity Company (SBEE) installed water, electricity and other utility lines worth 212,310 CFA francs, as part of its contribution.

Additional financial aid to the tune of 95,189 million CFA francs was contributed by the Beninois-Belgian Development Fund. Another group, the Songhai Centre, a local non-governmental organisation, contributed by overseeing the work on the project.

The centre consists of 12 residential “villages”, each of which housing 100 refugees. According to a construction technician, the centre’s living quarters offer “all the conveniences of modern design and blend in keeping with natural surroundings”.

Though its optimal capacity is 1200 people, the centre could lodge, says the technician, up to 5,000 if tents, so common in refugee camps, were used.

In addition to housing, the centre includes vocational training facilities, a three-classroom elementary school module for refugee children, administrative offices, and complete plumbing and electrical installations, fed by two giant generators.

Also on site is a dispensary and a health centre, a complete computer setup connected to the Internet, and a recreational room.

Albert Alain Peters, the director of UNHCR’s Africa bureau, who co-officiated the inauguration ceremony last week, describes Kpomasse as “a transit centre designed for the social integration of our brothers and sisters in distress”.

Some 730 Congolese refugees from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 200 Nigerians, and some 100 Togolese live in Kpomasse. Some of the Congolese may eventually be resettled in the United States, a well-informed source told IPS.

Burundian, Rwandan, Sudanese and Omani refugees also live at the centre. They all participated in the colourful inauguration ceremonies and presented beautiful paintings and dances from their respective countries.

Through their dances and African rhythms, the refugees “succeeded in transforming the memories of the unfortunate victims of barbaric and blind violence” that they had left behind in their countries, says an observer, deeply moved.

According to Peters, Benin has welcomed the “unfortunate victims of violence and social injustice” since independence from France in 1960. The refugees include those who fled Nigeria’s Biafra war (1968-1972), the Togo unrest (1993) and the political disturbances in the Ogoniland in Nigeria (1995).

According to the Beninois Interior Minister, Daniel Tawema, who represented the government at the ceremonies, the refugee question “became a major problem for Benin in 1993, when 150,000 Togolese refugees were welcomed into Beninois homes”.

Tawema urged the refugees to live in “peace, and tranquility…in Kpomasse lodging centre”. He also appealed for their “patience, understanding, wisdom, and solidarity”.

As of January 1999, Africa counted some 3.3 million refugees and 2.1 million displaced people, making up about one-third of the world total of 16.8 million, according to the UNHCR.