STORIES : The Forgotten Heart of Africa
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The Forgotten Heart of Africa
The Forgotten Heart of Africa (Central African Republic)
By Ronald De Hommel
Image ID: 474RDH_NV_015

Clarissa Dendoubou is from a small village in north western CAR, about 40 kilometres from the border with Chad. Her peaceful life with her husband and 7 children was torn apart one Saturday morning in February 2003. "My husband left for the town very early that morning. But at dawn the Chadian troops suddenly came, there was a lot of very intense gunfire in our village. I am just a woman, I could only take two of my children with me when I ran out of the house. We ran to the other side of the road and we saw the soldiers set fire to our home, the five children I had left behind were burnt in the house. My husband, I found out later, was killed on the road to Paoua by the troops.