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About 30,000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) and crossed into neighbouring Uganda after a rebel group
that had been hiding out in eastern Congo attacked a town.Families streamed across a bridge over a river near the border, clutching belongings. Some carried firewood over their heads, many brought livestock and women held small babies.
Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Ugandan side of the border on Friday, said people were so desperate to escape that some ignored the bridge and waded through the river.
“We heard rumours there were rebels coming but we did nothing," Evaketi Tibalumanya, a Congolese Refugee, told Al Jazeera, holding one of her nine children in her lap.
"Then they came by surprise at night. They caught a person and killed him. We escaped death because we ran away.”
The Ugandan military said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group that was driven across the border into the dense jungle of the DRC after a violent campaign in the late 1990s, overran the town of Kamangu on Thursday.
The ADF waged an insurgency against the Ugandan government in the late 1990s from bases in the Ruwenzori Mountains and across the frontier in eastern Congo. At its peak, it was blamed for a series of deadly blasts in the capital.
'No food, no shelter'
Recently carrying out only minor attacks on villages and units of DRC's army, the group had kept largely silent since the Ugandan government offensive against it in 2001.
Aid groups and the Ugandan government are struggling to cope with an influx that took them by surprise.
“People have no food, they have no shelter, they are sleeping in the open. The classrooms that have been provided by the government are not adequate enough to accommodate the huge number of people,” Richard Nsubuga of the Uganda Red Cross told Al Jazeera.
Ugandan soldiers kept a close watch on the refugees as they crossed the border and Paddy Ankunda, Uganda's military spokesman, told a news conference that the military was worried the rebels might join the influx disguised as refugees.
Ankunda also said the military feared the ADF could have gained attack skills from al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked group operating in Somalia, that could be used inside Uganda.
Al-Shabab have carried out the attacks in Ugandan capital Kampala before to avenge Uganda's deployment of troops as part of an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
aljazeera.com
13/7/13
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RDC: 55.000 réfugiés congolais en fuite vers l'Ouganda...
ReplyDeleteDes dizaines de milliers de réfugiés en provenance du Nord-Kivu fuient les combats entre des rebelles ougandais des Forces alliées démocratiques (ADF-Nalu) basés au Congo et l'armée congolaise.
Plus de 55.000 réfugiés congolais sont arrivés en Ouganda depuis jeudi, après avoir fui les attaques de rebelles ougandais dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), ont annoncé des responsables de la Croix-Rouge dimanche.
Face à ce flot de réfugiés, "il y a besoin d'une aide humanitaire d'urgence, puisque un certain nombre de réfugiés sont malades et ont laissé ce qu'ils avaient en RDC", a expliqué une responsable de la Croix-Rouge en Ouganda, Catherine Ntabadde.
Selon elle, le nombre de réfugiés a été estimé à 55.000 samedi soir, en forte hausse, puisqu'il était de 30.000 le jour précédent.
Combats dans la localité de Kamongo
Des rebelles ougandais des Forces alliées démocratiques (ADF-Nalu) avaient attaqué jeudi et brièvement occupé la localité de Kamango, dans la province congolaise du Nord-Kivu. Puis l'armée gouvernementale congolaise avait repris Kamango vendredi soir.
Selon le photographe de l'AFP sur place, un grand nombre de réfugiés attendait dimanche de pouvoir rentrer en RDC.
"Je veux rentrer parce que j'ai faim, ici, et je veux vérifier que mes biens sont en sécurité chez moi", explique un homme, acceptant de donner seulement son nom, Mateso. "On a entendu que les rebelles (ougandais) avaient été chassés (de l'est de la RDC, ndlr), alors il vaut mieux qu'on rentre chez nous plutôt que d'aller loin dans un camp en Ouganda", ajoute-t-il. ......http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/afrique/rdc-55-000-refugies-congolais-en-fuite-vers-l-ouganda_1266311.html
14/7/13
60,000 Congolese flee to Uganda after rebel attack....
ReplyDeleteKAMPALA: More than 60,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda after a rebel attack on a town near the border in a continuing influx that is stretching humanitarian capacities, an aid group said on Sunday.
The Uganda Red Cross has already registered 41,000 refugees and that 20,000 more are yet to go through that process, said spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde.
"Currently we are looking at about 65,000 people," she said.
The refugees are entering Uganda though the frontier district of Bundibugyo and many have found temporary shelter on the campuses of three schools there, she said.
The refugee influx continues three days after a Ugandan-led rebel group attacked Kamango town and killed some people on Thursday, according to Ugandan military officials who are concerned the rebels are about to launch a major assault on Ugandan territory. .....http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/60000-Congolese-flee-to-Uganda-after-rebel-attack/articleshow/21071057.cms
14/7/13