ZAMBIA: Congolese refugees relocated

A total of 5,400 refugees who fled into northern Zambia from fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been relocated to a new refugee camp near Mporokoso, some 200 km south of the border. Dominik Bartsch of UNCHR told IRIN on Wednesday the refugees, who were being relocated to remove pressure on the northernmost border town of Kaputa and to provide them with better facilities, had started entering Zambia in early March. By the end of that month when the influx slowed down, their number had reached about 15,000. He said up to 500 refugees were now being transported daily to the Mwange camp outside Mporokoso in an operation expected to last a month. Meanwhile, about 2,000 refugees who had been camping with local people near Kaputa had entered the town's refugee camp in recent days. Officials had also confirmed the presence of an estimated 2,600 DRC refugees in a remote area along the shores of Lake Tanganyika some 100 km east of Kaputa. The relocation of the refugees, according to UNHCR officials, was in keeping with the international conventions stipulating that refugees should be accommodated at least 50 km away from the border.