UN refugee agency moves over 1,000 Congolese refugees in Uganda to safer inland areas

More than 1,100 people who fled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the Ugandan side of the border area have been moved to two refugee camps further inland, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

The move comes as thousands of Congolese flee fighting towards Uganda while others return, encouraged by reports of an end to the clashes that had forced them to leave in the first place. Because of all these movements back and forth, UNHCR spokesperson Marie-Hélène Verney said it is difficult to estimate how many DRC refugees are in Uganda at any one time.

More than 950 people have been placed in the Nakivale refugee settlement, located in the Isingoro district of Uganda, some 220 kilometres south-west of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Another 201 refugees were taken Thursday from the border hamlet of Ishasha, in the district of Kanungu, to the existing settlement called Kyaka II, Ms. Verney told reporters in Geneva.

Nakivale already houses about 16,000 refugees, 70 per cent of them Rwandans. Space is adequate, water supplies are limited and more houses need to be built. The agency has set up a reception centre and a small mobile clinic and its staff members are prepared to receive the newcomers.

The vast majority of the 5,000 Congolese who congregated in Ishasha last week have returned home to the north Kivu province of DRC, where the fighting which triggered the refugee movements appeared to have ended. The Ugandan authorities said today, however, that some 50 people arrived overnight in the village.

Some 20,000 Congolese refugees crossed the border into Uganda last week. The largest group, comprising approximately 15,000 people, arrived in Nyakabanda in Kisoro district, some 450 kilometres south-west of Kampala. UNHCR set up a small clinic and 14 temporary shelters in Nyakabanda, enough to house all the new arrivals, many of whom then crossed back into DRC.