12,000 Congolese flee into Kisoro

Dec 07, 2006

ABOUT 100 injured Congolese, fleeing fighting in their country, have been treated at Kisoro Hospital since Tuesday.

By Kyomuhendo Muhanga
in Kisoro


ABOUT 100 injured Congolese, fleeing fighting in their country, have been treated at Kisoro Hospital since Tuesday.

Thirty of them were by press time still admitted, some with multiple gunshot wounds. Many are in critical condition, according to hospital sources.

The refugees said they were attacked by the rebels of Gen. Laurent Nkunda, who hauled a hand bomb into them as they fled Bunagana. They confirmed seven people, some of them children, were killed.

Leoniya Nyirancuti, who is nursing bullet wounds all over her body, said she lost two children she was carrying on her back, while the third one she carried on her chest survived with bullet wounds on the head. Her husband was killed.

The hospital, which has 100 beds and four doctors, has run out of supplies due to the influx.

“The numbers are too many,” said Dr. Joseph Nsenga. “We are afraid the situation may get out of hand if no immediate aid is delivered.”

The UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, and the Kisoro district authorities put the figure of refugees at 12,000.
“This is the official figure,” the district resident commissioner, David Masereka, stated, adding that a number of refugees had returned to their homes.

Walter Omondi, the UNHCR officer for western region, said at least 630 refugees had pitched camp at Nyakabande reception centre and were receiving humanitarian aid like food and medicine. The World Food Programme delivered biscuits while UNHCR distributed maize flour and sugar. They also constructed make-shift shelters.

Omondi said most of the refugees were still camping at Bunagana as they closely monitored the situation in Congo.

Fighting broke out on Tuesday in the densely populated areas of Runyonyi, Masisi and Bunagana in the province of North Kivu as RCD-Goma rebels, commanded by renegade Nkunda, attacked government positions.

The rebels captured the area but the government army, with the help of UN peace-keepers, regained their positions after beating off the attackers, killing more than 150 of them.

“We are still skeptical whether to go back or not. We keep monitoring the situation,” said Petero Nshabimana, a Congolese refugee at Bunagana.

Several unoccupied buildings on Kisoro Bunagana road, some of them without roofs, are occupied by refugees. Others moved in with their Kisoro cousins or are camped in the open.

A district health official, Abel Bizimana, said they were organising to immunise the Congolese children to curb a possible epidemic outbreak.

Meanwhile, disaster preparedness and refugees state minister Musa Ecweru yesterday told Parliament that Nyakabande had been identified as reception centre for the refugees.

He said the situation had been calm since Wednesday and that about 4,000 refugees crossed back to Congo.

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