First group tests repatriation route to DR of Congo from Tanzania, UN says

A pioneering group of nearly 300 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has gone home from Tanzania in the first convoy organized by the United Nations refugee agency to chart the way for thousands of Congolese going back to their war-battered country.

Among the unforeseen logistical challenges was a block on the road from the camps of Nyarugusu and Lugufu in western Tanzania on Wednesday morning, as the group headed first for the port of Kigoma on the banks of Lake Tanganyika. This delayed the group of 282 refugees, 15 refugee representatives on a "Go and See Visit" and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff members for three hours.

At Kigoma, where the water level was exceptionally low, UNHCR had to charter a shallower boat to take the group to the MV Mwongozo for the lake crossing. The refugees reached the Congolese port of Baraka Thursday morning. Congolese officials and UNHCR staff were with the families who had gathered in Baraka's port to welcome the returnees.

At Baraka transit centre they underwent training in landmine and HIV/AIDS awareness before setting out today for their villages, where they were to receive a repatriation package, including mattresses, kitchen sets and farming and building tools, UNHCR said.

To iron out the transportation problems, two more trial convoys were scheduled to leave Tanzanian camps before the major repatriation of another 150,000 refugees to the North and South Kivus starts in the first week of November, according to the agency.