VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS SAYS EASTERN ZAIRE ON BRINK OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS/ HUTU REFUGEES FLEE TOWARDS BUKAVU
Record ID:
337696
VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS SAYS EASTERN ZAIRE ON BRINK OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS/ HUTU REFUGEES FLEE TOWARDS BUKAVU
- Title: VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS SAYS EASTERN ZAIRE ON BRINK OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS/ HUTU REFUGEES FLEE TOWARDS BUKAVU
- Date: 22nd October 1996
- Summary: NEAR BUKAVU, ZAIRE/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ UNITED NATIONS (OCTOBER 22, 1996) (RTV/UNHCR/UNTV - ACCESS ALL) NEAR BUKAVU, ZAIRE (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: REFUGEE CAMP IN VALLEY/ REFUGEES WALKING TOWARDS CAMP (3 SHOTS) 0.30 2. GV: REFUGEES ON ROAD (3 SHOTS) 0.55 3. SV/MCU: ABDEL WAHAB MAHMOUD JEME, EMERGENCY COORDINATOR FOR KIVU REGION, SAYING AT THIS MOMENT OUR ESTIMATES ARE OVER 15-20,000 HAVE ALREADY REACHED THE OUTSKIRTS OF BUKAVU AND OUR ESTIMATES ARE MANY MORE ARE ON THE ROAD (ENGLISH) 1.13 4. GV: ZAIRE TROOPS AND REFUGEES (2 SHOTS) 1.30 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (UNHCR - ACCESS ALL) 5. MCU: UNHCR (UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES) CHIEF SADAKO OGATA SAYING I AM VERY CONCERNED ABOUT SITUATION IN UVIRA REGION IN EASTERN ZAIRE, THERE MAY BE CLOSE TO QUARTER OF MILLION PEOPLE CAUGHT IN FIGHTING, OUR CAMPS ARE EMPTY AND THERE IS ALOT OF FIGHTING (ENGLISH) 1.54 UNITED NATIONS (UNTV - ACCESS ALL) 6. MCU: UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI SAYING I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THAT I AM VERY MUCH CONCERNED WITH SITUATION IN ZAIRE AND THE BORDER. THIS MORNING WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO OBTAIN THAT THE PLANE WILL LEAVE WITH MORE THAN 60 OF OUR PEOPLE, AND THEY HAVE REACHED ENTEBBE NOW AND THERE IS A CONTINUOUS DETERIORATION OF THE SITUATION ON THE GROUND NOT ONLY FOR THE REFUGEES BUT INSIDE ZAIRE AND THERE IS A REAL CONFRONTATION BETWEEN ZAIRE AND RWANDA (ENGLISH) 2.28 NEAR BUKAVU, ZAIRE (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 7. GV: REFUGEES ON ROAD (3 SHOTS) 3.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 6th November 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEAR BUKAVU, ZAIRE/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ UNITED NATIONS
- City:
- Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
- Reuters ID: LVA43GUQUEEAMOKGEA83Y9VC3I43
- Story Text: INTRO: As tens of thousands of exhausted Hutus and displaced Zaireans who are fleeing Tutsi rebels trudge north towards Bukavu refugee camps in Zaire, a report from near Goma further north in the volatile refugee zone has indicated that fighting was spreading there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Columns of refugees fleeing violence in east Zaire headed for the town of Bukavu on Tuesday (October 22) and the United Nations (U.N.) said it feared a crisis similar to that in Rwanda in 1994.
An estimated quarter of a million Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire are on the move, terrified of being caught up in fighting.
The refugees were met by Zairean troops at Nyantende and directed to camps to the west of Bukavu.
At a refugee camp near Bukavu, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman, Abdelwahab Mahmoud Jeme, said the agency only had enough food supplies to last six days.
He said that the WFP estimated up to 20,000 refugees were already on the outskirts of Bukavu.
UNHCR Chief Sadako Ogata said she was very concerned about the situation in the Uvira region in eastern Zaire, saying that there may be close to a quarter of a million people caught up in fighting.
Speaking in Geneva, she said: "Unless all parties to this conflict step back, we are, I am afraid, heading towards a humanitarian catastrophe." At the United Nations, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he had been in contact with Zairean government leaders but feared fighting between the army and ethnic Tutsis would deteriorate further.
"There is a continuous deterioration of the situation on the ground not only for the refugees but also inside Zaire. And there is a real confrontation between Zaire and Rwanda," he told reporters after a Security Council session.
Boutros-Ghali said the U.N. had evacuated 58 aid workers trapped in eastern Zaire, some of them to Entebbe, Uganda. U.N.
officials said others went to Goma and points in Zaire on two aircraft, one from the World Food Programme, the other from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Eastern Zaire has been gripped by unrest since the 1994 massacres and civil war in Rwanda sent more than a million Hutu refugees streaming in, stoking ethnic rivalry in the area.
Fighting has widened in the last six weeks since the Zaire army got drawn into long-running ethnic clashes between Tutsi immigrants, known as Banyamulenge, and native Zaireans.
The latest violence is centred around the town of Uvira, 100 km (65 miles) from the South Kivu Provincial capital Bukavu.
The fighting has fuelled fears that the Tutsi and Hutu rivalry which triggered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the equally bitter civil war in Burundi could engulf the whole Central African Great Lakes region.
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