Limited return of displaced people within Brazzaville

A "street-by-street" return of displaced people within Brazzaville is to begin on Saturday, a UN official told IRIN. A package of food and non-food items for returnees is to be provided by humanitarian agencies including ICRC, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Caritas, UNICEF and WFP. The displaced people are returning to the southern Brazzaville suburbs of Bacongo and Makelekele from camps mainly in the city's northern outskirts. Residents from some southernmost areas are not yet allowed to go home, a government spokesman told state radio. The operation will start 1 May. Meanwhile, government forces have acknowledged the use of a helicopter gunship against Ninja rebels to the southwest of the capital last weekend. In the western part of the country, where government troops have been skirmishing with Cocoyes militia, Reuters reports that the port city of Pointe Noire had been without electricity for four days, as there had been a break in the power line between the Moukoukoulou hydroelectric plant and the port.