On 25 and 26 April 2014, a UNHCR team visited the central mosque of Bangui’s 3rd district, in order to assess the needs of the more than 900 IDPs that are living at its premises, including South Sudanese refugees with Chadian refugees also in the same neighborhood. The team consulted with the Imam and representatives of the displaced, who stressed the need to address prevailing insecurity and reestablish freedom of movement for the people that have found refuge there.

“Every time there is a security threat we are exposed. Meanwhile, we are too afraid to go out. My own house has been turned into a maternity home. Five women had to give birth there, as they were unable to reach the hospital,” said the 37-year-old imam Ahmadou Tedjani. With the help of international organizations, the Imam is engaging in a daily struggle to cater to the needs of the displaced. The latter are obliged to sell whatever goods they saved from their destroyed homes, in order to buy food. Among them, there are many elderly and disabled, as well as about 100 children.

The mosque was established in its current form in the 1960s, on the foundations of an older place of worship. It started hosting the displaced on 5 December 2013, providing shelter to more than 2,000 people at the height of hostilities in the neighborhood.