Fabiola Ortiz – IPS News, 09/15/2011
Family of Congolese refugees in Brazil. Credit:UNHCR/L.F.Godinho
Wilson Nicolas, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was the first African refugee to find his way to Brazil’s Amazon jungle region, and seems to have started a trend.
The 56-year-old Nicolas (not his real name) escaped from the province of Équateur in the northwest of the DRC, in central Africa, fleeing clashes between rival ethnic groups over fishing rights.
According to United Nations figures, since 2010 some 30 refugees from Africa who have requested asylum from the Brazilian government are living in Amazon jungle states. The asylum-seekers are from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in West Africa, Kenya in East Africa, Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, and the DRC.
