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Mia Farrow in the Central African Republic
Unicef celebrity ambassador Mia Farrow visited the Central African Republic during the conflict in 2013.
Displaced People
Muslim and Christian communities fled fighting in the Central African Republic to come to the town of Bossangoa, taking refuge in the schools and other buildings. The country has been plagued by instability since a coup by Seleka, a coalition of rebel groups which overthrew longtime president Francois Bozize in March 2013,
Ghost Towns
During her visit to the Central African Republic, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow stopped at one of the ‘ghost’ villages that line the road to the town of Bossangoa. She looked around and picked up a charred plate that lay among the ruins of a home that had been burned.
This wreckage of domestic life was a small reminder of the nearly 400,000 people who have now been displaced from their homes because of conflict.
“Your heart breaks, because the last thing that people want to do is leave their homes, leave their communities,” Mia Farrow
At Liberté School, Ms. Farrow met the Bouba family. Thirteen-year-old Oumarou and his 10-year-old brother Adovan had lived in the bush for several weeks with their mother before arriving at the site. Home for the Bouba family is now a cramped corner of a classroom. They are almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. Oumarou told Ms. Farrow about how his family had gotten there.
“They arrived on Friday at 5 a.m. in my village,” he said. “We tried to escape, but they blocked us in our homes. They took my father and killed him because they said that he was the enemy. They burnt our house and threw his body into the fire," said Oumarou.
His brother Adovan was seriously injured when a man hit him over the head with a machete as he tried to flee. A woman wrapped his head in a cloth and managed to staunch the bleeding.
