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Central African Republic: Awa reunited with her family thanks to a mobile phone
24-02-2012 Photo gallery
Awa is nine months old. Just a few weeks ago, she was living quietly with her family in a small village in the Central African Republic. On 26 January, heavy fighting broke out between government armed forces and an armed group. The village was attacked and the houses were looted and set on fire. Awa's family fled into the bush, abandoning their crops and all their belongings. In the panic, the child was lost. Like thousands of other children caught up in armed conflict, Awa was alone in the African bush.
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For three days, Awa was all alone in the bush. She was found by a family returning to recover items they had hidden near the village, who heard Awa cry. On 6 February, ICRC staff went to Farazala, in the area suffering the effects of the fighting, to meet people who had been displaced and see how they could help them. They were approached by a woman who said that she had taken in a little Fulani girl but that she didn't know the girl's name or who her parents were. She had been spreading the word in nearby places where Fulani families had found refuge, but without success.
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Without information on who the girl's family was or where they lived, it was extremely difficult to look for members of her dispersed family. The security situation also prevented the ICRC from returning regularly to the area to obtain more information on the girl, her parents or the circumstances in which they fled. What could be done?
Victor, an ICRC driver, pulled out his mobile phone to snap a picture of the little girl. The host family agreed to contact the ICRC if they obtained information on Awa's family. The ICRC staff left Farazala for Kaga Bandoro with the picture of Awa recorded on the mobile phone.
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Three days later, a member of the Muslim community of Kaga Bandoro went to the ICRC office. An elderly Fulani woman, who had recently left the bush after having taken refuge there, was spending her days crying over the loss of her nine-month-old granddaughter, Awa! The grandmother went to the ICRC office straight away and recognized her granddaughter on the mobile phone of Victor, the ICRC driver.
The ICRC contacted Awa's host family, but the roads from Kaga Bandoro to Farazala were not safe, and international humanitarian organizations no longer had access to them. On 14 February, at the end of the day, the president of the local branch of the Central African Red Cross in Ouandago, half way between Farazala and Kaga Bandoro, went himself by motorcycle to Farazala to fetch Awa. The next day, he placed Awa in the care of ICRC staff who were in Ouandago to register displaced people and repair boreholes.
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Thanks to a mobile phone, Awa was reunited with her family, who should never have suffered the effects of violence and from whom she should never have been separated.
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