The grand total of the Kisangani/Mbandaka airlift
now stands at 41,886 refugees flown back to Rwanda. Three sorties
from Mbandaka on Thursday returned 595 refugees, bringing the Mbandaka
total to 4,715 returnees.
Out of Kisangani, a total of 37,171 refugees have been repatriated by air
to date.
Access is still a huge problem. On Wednesday a UNHCR road engineer
was prevented from going beyond km 42 to carry out a road inspection. UNHCR
believes that large groups of people remain in the forest west of that
area.
We have not received permission to access Ikela some 300 kms southwest
of Kisangani where there are reportedly some 50 sick and vulnerable people.
In the Mbandaka area agencies collect some 600 people a day from outlying
areas. UNHCR has dispatched four additional trucks to help collect
people. Two more are trucks are being airlifted today.
We are also trying to alert as many people as possible in the Kisangani
and Mbandaka area to the fact that there is an airlift and that there is
a possibility to be flown back to Rwanda.
CONGO
Rwandan refugees are still trickling into Congo from the Democratic Republic
of Congo. The total now is estimated at 15,000. Some have been
marooned in swampy areas where aid workers can't reach them. The
government has sent barges to collect them. Yesterday, some 4,100
Rwandan refugees arrived in Brazzaville in barges. Some of them may
be former Rwandan military and their families. The group is first
being transferred to a transit camp at Kintele 30 kms from Brazzaville
where they will be screened by ICRC to determine their status.