ZAIRE: RWANDA HUTUS FLEE FROM REFUGEE CAMPS HIDING FROM REBEL FORCES

Record ID: 275053

  • Title: ZAIRE: RWANDA HUTUS FLEE FROM REFUGEE CAMPS HIDING FROM REBEL FORCES
  • Date: 26th April 1997
  • Summary: CONGO RIVER NEAR KISANGANI, ZAIRE (APRIL 26, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV REFUGEES IN CANOE ON CONGO RIVER 0.05 2. SV REFUGEES IN CANOE (2 SHOTS) 0.17 3. MCU MALE REFUGEE SAYS THEY FLED AFTER MANY KILLINGS IN CAMP WITH MACHETES AND SHOOTING OF REFUGEES BY REBELS; REFUGEES ARE MOVING THROUGH DENSE JUNGLE IN SMALL GROUPS
  • Embargoed: 11th May 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CONGO RIVER NEAR KISANGANI, ZAIRE
  • City:
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4GDVOJDC2QMMFCXT1MEFZP40
  • Story Text: Nearly 100,000 Rwandan Hutus have fled from refugee camps south of Kinsangani, hiding from rebel forces who international agencies say are trying to exterminate them.

    The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) say they have been unable to find the refugees, who have apparently disappeared into the jungle, moving in small groups to avoid detection by Zairean rebel forces.

    One group of Rwandan refugees was found paddling down the Congo River in a battered canoe on Saturday (April 26), trying to make their way to Kisangani and help from the UNHCR based there.

    One refugee said they had fled the camp after many killings with machetes and shootings of refugees by rebel forces. He said most refugees were fleeing in small groups, moving through the dense jungle.

    UNHCR press spokesman Paul Stromberg said it had been a "catastrophic week" and the UN were very concerned at reports of "people fleeing, people being killed, people leaving their babies behind".

    Rebel leader Laurent Kabila sent aides to north-eastern Zaire on Saturday before flying in to face United Nations aid agency outrage at the fate of the refugees The row over the treatment of the refugees is the biggest international crisis for Kabila's seven-month rebellion.

    Aid workers say they fear rebels regard all Hutu refugees hiding in the jungle as former Rwandan troops and militiamen guilty of genocide or their dependents and show little mercy.


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