DR Congo: more than 70,000 return home under UN repatriation programme

The United Nations voluntary repatriation programme for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has brought home more than 70,000 refugees since it started operations just under a year ago as the vast country moves ahead with its transition from a deadly six-year civil war.

Each returnee receives a standard assistance kit from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners, including household items, plastic sheeting, buckets, jerry cans, mosquito nets, agricultural tools and food rations for three months.

There are still more than 420,000 Congolese refugees in neighbouring countries, including 140,000 in Tanzania, who fled the six-year conflict, which cost 4 million lives through fighting and attendant hunger and disease, widely considered the most lethal fighting in the world since World War II.

Just last week, the 20,000-mark was passed for refugees crossing Lake Tanganyika from Tanzania to Baraka in South Kivu province.

In early September, UNHCR resumed the organized voluntary repatriation of Congolese refugees following a month-long suspension of activities during the first round of the landmark DRC presidential election, the largest and most complex vote the UN has ever helped organize. The second round is due to be held on 29 October.

The UNHCR aid that the returnees receive sometimes causes friction with internally displaced Congolese who came home to destroyed houses and burned crops without receiving a helping hand to get them started, and the Agency is working on community projects to help mitigate this.

UNHCR is collaborating with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to rebuild bridges within torn communities. Other activities range from infrastructure repairs, reconstruction and improvement of education facilities to income-generating activities for women.

“Through operational partnerships and a community-based approach to repatriation efforts we are hoping to achieve a more sustainable and effective level of reintegration and community support,” UNHCR country representative Eusebe Hounsokou said.

Despite these efforts, UNHCR’s effectiveness is limited due to inadequate funding. “Last year we paid all the school fees and gave school kits to each returning child through the NGO AIDES,” Awada Houssein Adar, UNHCR community services officer in Baraka said.

“Unfortunately, this year we will not have the funds to continue such support. For the next school year we’ll have to rely on parent-teacher associations to come to some compromise and mutual agreement on how to pay teachers and enable students to continue their studies.”