Philippe’s Story, Central African Republic

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Philippe’s Story, Central African Republic

UNHCR, 24 Jun 2014

URL: http://stories.unhcr.org/philippes-story-central-african-republic-p5767.html
Philippe came to find peace in the CAR due to the conflict at the Ivory Coast.

“When someone is a refugee, he doesn’t choose the country in which he will end up. He tries to flee as far away as possible in order to save his life. This is how I ended up at the Central African Republic, all the way from the Ivory Coast, due to the conflict of 2004 which had various intertwining aspects: a political, a military, a religious and an ethnic one.

The conflict found me at the workplace, a French restaurant which I was managing. We received threats and intimidation, and one of my colleagues was badly beaten up in the middle of the street. I sent my wife to her parent’s village and I moved to my own parent’s house, in order to stay safe. I was sleeping with my clothes on and with money in my pocket, until my negative presentiment proved right. One day, at 02h00 in the morning, armed men came to break the door and take me. The house’s guardian fled when he saw the weapons and all my family escaped from the back door. We started running in different directions. After spending the night at a friend, I took a car and started driving east.

I arrived in Bangui on a Saturday and I came to UNHCR on Monday, in order to ask for asylum. Up to that time, I didn’t know anything regarding the Central African Republic, except the name of the country’s president. I was just escaping, trying to find some peace. But that came with a cost: When I tried calling my family and my wife, I wasn’t able to reach either of them. We didn’t use mobile phones at the time and there was no answer on the fixed phone lines. It’s been ten years now that I have been living here and it’s been ten years that haven’t heard from my beloved ones.”