From Segun Adeyemi; PANA Correspondent
NEW YORK (PANA) - The international
humanitarian group, Medecins sans Frontienres (Doctors without Borders),
has called on the United Nations to urgently evacuate some 3,000 Tutsis
caught between armed groups fighting in Masisi, eastern Zaire.
The organisation said in a statement Wednesday in New York that the Tutsis, part of a group that came from Rwanda to Zaire in the 1920's, were likely to be killed unless they were evacuated.
It said the Masisi conflict was spiraling out of control, and that an estimated 100 Tutsis were killed in the region May 12.
It also accused the UN High Commissioner for Refugees of stalling plans by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to evacuate the Tutsis.
"IOM is ready with trucks to move these people, but needs the go ahead from the UNHCR, who won't or can't give it because they categorise these people as internally displaced...as opposed to refugees," the organisation said.
"Action must be taken now or people will die," it added.
MSF, which has been working in the conflict area since 1993, said that escalating violence forced it to evacuate its own staff from the region last Friday.
Disclaimer
- Pan African News Agency
- Copyright - All PANA content and graphics is protected by copyright and international treaties and may not be copied, reproduced or re-used for any purpose without written permission.