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DR Congo

Great Lakes Briefing Notes 21 Mar 1997

ZAIRE:
We are very worried about the situation of refugees in the Ubundu area. We are sending a six=ADmember emergency team to Kisangani to resume emergency assistance programs there for the refugees in Ubundu and elsewhere in eastern Zaire and for displaced people. The members are expected to begin arriving this weekend. We hope to be able to fly in aid to an airstrip at a place known as Kilometre 95 (95 kilometres from Kisangani). This airstrip needs some repairs before flights can start. In the meantime, we are seeking permission from the Alliance to overfly Ubundu to verify various estimates of the number of people there. The estimates range from 75,000 to 150,000.

Reports from various sources, including refugees, NGOs and Red Cross workers, indicate that a large concentration of refugees has managed to cross the Zaire river into the western bank of Ubundu town and that 60,000 of them had gathered at a site called kilometer 82 near a village called Obilo. The site, where there is a Red Cross medical and feeding center, is in an area 1=AD1/2 km wide and 2 1/2 km long. The refugees are crammed in that area and some are scattered nearby along the railway line between Kisangani and Ubundu. The refugees =AD=AD mostly men =AD=AD were reported to be weak, tired and hungry. They are just milling around, waiting for food. Local Red Cross workers who had gone to Kisangani had told them before they left two days ago they were coming back with food. We were told that tens of thousands of refugees are still on the eastern bank of the river waiting to cross over to the other side. These are mostly women and children, generally the weak who are unable to cross the river. Several hundreds drowned last week attempting to cross the river during a storm.

Thousands of refugees =AD=AD the strongest among those who have reached the western side of Ubundu are moving in different directions, farther into the interior where access to them will be practically impossible.

We have not succeeded so far in bringing relief items to Ubundu. A 12=ADton shipment of blankets, medicine, plastic sheeting and jerry cans was looted while sitting on a train in Kisangani waiting to be transported to Ubundu. But we have found several tons of relief supplies in Kisangani that had been spared from the looting and we hope to transport them to Ubundu as soon as possible.

We continue with our relief programs in the previous refugee sites that had been abandoned =AD=AD Amisi, Tingi=ADTingi and Kindu. Yesterday, we airlifted 61 unaccompanied children and 10 adults from Kindu. Since the program to repatriate children to Rwanda started last week, we have transported to Goma 144 mostly unaccompanied children for eventual return to Rwanda.

BURUNDI:

We condemn the killing of some 135 displaced Burundians in a regroupment site in Cibitoke province in Burundi. We believe that the killings demonstrate that the regroupment programme in Burundi does not necessarily provide extra security for returned refugees and the displaced as the government has suggested. UNHCR has been conducting a limited programme in the Cibitoke region for more than 90,000 Burundi refugees who have returned to Burundi from Zaire since November and displaced people. Although the security situation in some areas of Burundi has improved, we still do not believe it is safe enough to encourage refugees to return to the country. Our programmes are therefore restricted to helping those who have repatriated spontaneously rather than helping to organise returns.