UGANDA: Thousands of refugees pour into Uganda as they flee fresh fighting in Eastern Congo

At least 12,000 refugees fleeing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have crossed over the border into southwest Uganda, a Ugandan army spokesman said on Wednesday (December 6). Heavy fighting broke out in eastern Congo last month after rebels led by dissident General Laurent Nkunda attacked and forced out government soldiers near the town of Sake. Ugandan officials said that the refugees fled into the Kisoro district after clashes occurred on the Congolese side about 15km from the Ugandan border. "We came from Masisi, where we met the rebels, they were fighting each other, the soldiers were of Laurent Nkunda and the ones of Kabila, as they were fighting we ran through the bush and found ourselves at the border to Kisoro, we did not know where we were, we don't have any bedding, we don't have food and we have children while others got lost and we don't know where they are now," said Ange Feli a refugee. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has sent a team to Kisoro to assess the plight of the refugees. "The most urgent needs have been dealt with, we have met those very urgent needs in terms of water, sanitation, and then of course food, and then we will provide them with a more permanent type of shelter once they have been moved to one of the settlements in Uganda," Said Khezry Mostafa, a UNHCR official. On December 5 when the fighting started, over 12,000 refugees fled to the Ugandan side and set up makeshift camps in two places along the border. U.N. peacekeepers in Congo battled Nkunda's men last week using helicopter gunships, heavy weapons and armoured vehicles in skirmishes that killed 150 rebels -- the highest recorded death toll of any battle involving U.N. forces in Congo. The Congolese army have since regained their positions but sporadic clashes have persisted. Uganda fears that Congo's chaotic eastern provinces are a haven for rebels trying to destabilise it by launching incursions over the border, ostensibly the reason it joined Rwanda to invade Congo in a 1998-2003 war. During the war, which drew in six neighbouring countries and a plethora of armed groups, Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, fought for Rwandan-backed rebels hunting the Hutu militia who took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide against Tutsis. The latest flare-up came as Congo's newly elected President Joseph Kabila was to be inaugurated on Wednesday, winding up a long peace process aiming to restore stability to the huge country.

ITN Source | December 9, 2006

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