Security tightened at DR of Congo-Burundi border, UN reports

United Nations peacekeeping missions in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are working to tighten security along the border to prevent a repeat of the recent slaughter of refugees at Gatumba camp.

The new UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) military spokesman, Maj. François Ouedraogo, told journalists yesterday that security has been reinforced along the border in the wake of the killing of some 160 Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) refugees at the Burundian transit centre at Gatumba during the night of 13 August.

MONUC's Force Commander, Gen. Iliya Samaila, had toured eastern DRC and visited Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, to talk with UN troops and Congolese officers and to explore, with his counterpart of the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB), further joint activities on the ground.

In the framework of the Disarmament, Demobilization, Repatriation, Resettlement and Reintegration process, meanwhile, a high-level Ugandan delegation has arranged for the repatriation of the remaining 100 troops from Kananga Province, according to MONUC spokeswoman Patricia Tomé.

The mission had repatriated the majority of them to Entebbe, Uganda, last December, she said.