Documenting violence against refugees

After the civil war restarted in Congo-Brazzaville in December, 1998, a third of the population of Brazzaville fled into the forests of the neighbouring Pool region, where some 250 000 displaced people remained trapped for several months with limited access to international aid. From May, 1999, targeted surveys, and the collection of surveillance and screening data among returnees in Brazzaville enabled the documentation of the health consequences of war on this population. A retrospective mortality survey registered a mortality rate during the migration of more than five times the alert threshold. Lack of food was a major problem for the displaced, as shown by the proportion of deaths due to malnutrition (50%), and by the prevalence of severe malnutrition among children younger than 5 years returning to Brazzaville (20%). Further, the 1600 cases of rape reported between May and December, 1999, from the hospitals of Brazzaville highlight the high prevalence of sexual violence directed against women and girls during migration.