UNHCR assists Pool refugees

Some 8,500 refugees have arrived in the Luozi area of Bas-Congo from the Pool region of Congo-Brazzaville, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN yesterday. The refugees have fled fighting between Congolese government forces and Ninja militia in Pool over the past two months, he said. A recent UNHCR mission to the area found that the refugees were meeting their own basic food needs. However, a continuation of fighting would threaten trade lines on which the refugees depend for their food and other basic supplies, he said. The current priority needs are for medical assistance and soap, the spokesman added. Meanwhile, heavy weapons fire could be heard again today in Brazzaville coming from the Pool region, some 20 km from the capital, and displaced populations were continuing to arrive in the city, humanitarian sources said. Yesterday, government soldiers looted shops and harassed their owners in the southern part of Brazzaville, news agencies reported. Police fired into the air to disperse the looting troops, AFP said.