[M’Poko Camp for Internally Displaced Persons Bangui]
[Song by a local band composed of people with disabilities in M’Poko Camp] We, people with disabilities in the Central African Republic,
we want peace in the Central African Republic.
We want peace in Bangui.
[Testimony of blind resident of M’Poko Camp] When the situation in the country is stable, I don't need anyone to get around,
because I know how to handle my cane and I can move around on my own.
But with the [crisis], I can’t do it anymore,
Now, it's hard for me [being blind] to get around on my own.
So life is very hard and painful, being so vulnerable.
[Title] People with Disabilities in Conflict Central African Republic
[Voice-over] People with disabilities are particularly vulnerable in conflict.
And in an ongoing crisis like the one taking place in the Central African Republic,
they can become invisible.
The conflict started in early 2013 when a group of mostly Muslim rebels seized power
in a brutal campaign of violence against civilians.
Local groups organized to fight against the rebels
and began committing horrific reprisal attacks against Muslim civilians.
Thousands of people were killed.
Hundreds of thousands fled across the borders and many more were displaced inside the country,
including people with disabilities.
We met Hamamatou, a 13-year-old polio survivor who can’t walk and who doesn’t have a wheelchair.
She told us what happened on the day her village was attacked.
[Hamamatou’s testimony] [My brother Souleymane and my mother and I] were about to go to the market and heard gunshots,
then my mother and Souleymane’s wife fled.
Souleymane came and told me that he would carry me.
He carried me very far, deep into the forest until he got too tired to continue.
I told him, “Souleymane put me down and save yourself.”
He said he would come back for me if they didn’t kill him. If he didn’t return, it would mean [he was dead].
[Voice-over] One of the untold stories of this conflict and its aftermath is the isolation, abandonment, and neglect of people with disabilities.
[Hamamatou’s testimony] If I were able to walk, they wouldn’t have left me.
[Voice-over] Hamamatou’s brother never returned.
When fighters found her two weeks later in the bush one said, “We have found an animal, let’s finish it off.”
But they let her go.
She eventually made her way to the Catholic church in Bossemptélé where she now lives under the care of local priests.
[Father Bernard Kinvi testimony] We found him in the bush too.
He had been threatened. He spent three days by the river.
He was hungry. And I found him…
I wanted to take him with me, but he was afraid of me
[Voice-over] Father Bernard Kinvi told us that many people with disabilities were abandoned during the violence,
including this young boy who had survived polio.
[Father Bernard Kinvi testimony] They really are the most abandoned among the abandoned.
[Ambroise’s testimony] [The rebels] killed people like it was nothing.
They beat people, people were suffering. My whole family fled our home.
I was inside, a kid had just passed by,
I started to shout, I began to cry.
I said, please help me! If you leave me, I will die.
When the kid saw this, it made him upset and fear for me as well.
He came, he carried me on his back [for 2 to 3 km] from the 5th [district] to the airport here.
[Voice-over] Ambroise, who used to work as a mobile phone repairman,
now lives in the M’Poko camp for people displaced by the violence.
The camp sprung up around the main airport in Bangui where at least 100,000 people sought refuge.
Some 18,000 are still there.
Ambroise, like many other people with disabilities living in the camp,
faces daily hurdles and humiliations in simply meeting his basic needs.
[Ambroise’s testimony] Here, it’s different than home.
Even to get soap to wash our clothes isn’t easy.
You see how dirty I am from my pants to my feet.
[Voice-over] Simplice, was professor of French literature before the conflict.
He also lives in the M’Poko camp with his wife and two children.
[Simplice’s testimony] In the camp there are enormous difficulties because
as you know, people with disabilities are often forgotten.
We, people with disabilities, have trouble getting around to go find something to eat.
[Voice-over] Simplice now works as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities in the camp.
[Simplice’s testimony] People with disabilities have a different life here because
their disability is doubled once they've moved from their house to the M’Poko camp
because they behind all their little tricks they had learned to survive.
For a person with disabilities who had a tricycle for example,
he ends up without any tricycle now.
That makes it a double disability for him.
Now, he is on the ground instead of being able to move by himself.
He is crawling like an animal to go where he wants to go.
That's disgraceful.
[Rodrigue’s testimony] Since I’ve been at the camp, I go to beg and I come back to sleep.
I sleep on sacks given to me by my neighbors.
I wear sandals on my hands [to go to the bathroom].
[Voice-over] Rodrigue told us that he had fled to the M’Poko camp after his parents were killed in attacks.
[Rodrigue’s testimony] To go out, I have to wait for the rickshaw to pick me up and take me to my spot.
Once there, I start to beg.
I pay just 100 or 200 FCFA ($0.17 – $0.35) to be brought there.
I usually [beg] from 7am until 1pm or 2pm…
just to have a little money to pay for soap and something to eat.
[Voice-over] Open sewage drains line the camp and the uneven terrain makes it difficult for people with disabilities to move around.
[Testimony of blind resident of M’Poko Camp] The fact that we cannot be independent is another form of disability.
Until this day, I don’t get around on my own.
Especially us, the blind, can’t get around on our own in this camp.
[Voice-over] We visited the Muslim enclave in Yaloké where we met Mamadou, a 14-year-old polio survivor.
Mamadou was severely underweight and was suffering from a pulmonary infection.
[Mamadou’s father testimony] When we first got here his health was okay although of course he [could hardly] walk.
Now he’s sick with a heavy dry cough.
[Voice-over] In the enclave, 53 people have died from malnutrition and treatable illnesses.
Others have not received counseling for the atrocities they witnessed.
Suleiman, a 17-year-old-boy with intellectual and physical disabilities,
was fleeing for his life when he saw his uncle being brutally killed.
[Suleiman’s testimony] I saw so many dead in the forest and that continues to haunt me.
I still have nightmares.
[Simplice’s testimony with para-basketball team] When this conflict began, we, people with disabilities, stuck together.
[Voice-over] One of the national para-basketball teams is back training in a rundown stadium in Bangui.
They’re preparing for a match in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July.
[Testimony para-basketball team member] We’ve competed in many countries, and everywhere we’ve won medals.
Gold, silver and bronze.
[Simplice’s testimony with para-basketball team] [The conflict] didn’t have influence on our relationship, despite our religious differences.
We all share the experience of living with disabilities. That powerful bond has made us like a family.
[Voice-over] It is critical that the United Nations, aid agencies, and the transitional government address the needs of people with disabilities
in their response to the crisis and include them in their planning and decision-making processes.
[Ambroise’s testimony] If there are people who can support us, please, come support us.
Because we are suffering so much and there’s no assistance.
There’s no assistance for us, people with disabilities.
We are abandoned
[Song by a local band composed of people with disabilities in M’Poko Camp] We don’t want war anymore.
We don’t want this anymore.
[Voice-over] In any crisis, people with disabilities deserve to be heard, recognized and supported.
[Song by a local band composed of people with disabilities in M’Poko Camp] We don’t want war anymore.