6,000 Hema Flee To Uganda

GENEVA, Tuesday - The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported last week that about 6,000 Hema had escaped Bunia, and crossed over the eastern border into Uganda, to Bundibugyo district. Some 10,000 people have fled ethnic fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and are heading west toward the provincial capital of Kisangani, UNHCR said Tuesday. Spokesman Kris Janowski of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the refugees spoke of massive attacks by Lendu tribesmen armed with guns, spears, bows and arrows around Bunia, where fighting between ethnic Lendus and Hemas has been raging. Bunia is under control of Ugandan troops backing DRC rebels. The Hema, mostly herders, and the Lendu, farmers and hunters, have been fighting over land, mainly in the Ituri province, since 1998. The ethnic conflict has intensified during the country's two-and-a-half-year civil war, which has provided a steady flow of weapons into the region, and further ravaged a poor local economy. "They killed my father, my mother, my brother and my kid. They came in large numbers. I ran away during the attack and I later saw my home in flames," a Hema refugee in a camp near Bundibugyo was quoted by the UNHCR as saying. The UNHCR said hundreds of people have died in the bloodshed. On Monday, the US-based Human Rights Watch said at least 150 people were massacred in Bunia. The killings occurred when a militia of the Lendu and affiliated Ngiti people attacked Bunia airport in an apparent bid to disable a Ugandan helicopter that had been used to attack them in the earlier conflicts. Ends