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The "pressure is still on" for Congolese refugees in Rwanda's Gihembe camp to go home, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Friday.
During a visit to the camp, in the northern Byumba Prefecture, last week, a UNHCR team was told that intimidation and disinformation campaigns were continuing in the camp. The team also saw military personnel speaking to refugees about returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Teenage boys in the camp said they were afraid to return to their homeland, because they knew they would be conscripted into rebel forces in eastern DRC.
Meanwhile, schools in both Gihembe and Kiziba camps in Kibuye Prefecture in the east remained closed following instructions from the Rwandan government. More than 10,000 school-age refugee children in the camps, which have been hosting more than 32,000 refugees, remained out of school for the second week, UNHCR reported.
Since the start of a repatriation movement on 31 August organised by the Rwandan government and the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie rebel movement, more than 8,500 Congolese refugees in Rwandan camps have returned under duress to Kichanga in North Kivu, northeastern DRC, according to UNHCR.
The involuntary returns have reportedly stopped since 18 September following protests by the UN refugee agency. The Congolese returnees are currently occupying an abandoned factory in Kichanga, where UNHCR says they live in poor sanitary conditions and face a shortage of food and potable water.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
