Affected people greatly concentrated in northwest

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) has set the number of "affected people" requiring humanitarian assistance in Rwanda at 673,003 - a figure that includes over half a million IDPs in addition to 33,711 refugees, 6,569 unaccompanied children and 124,198 detainees. The vast majority of IDPs, numbering 365,414, were in Ruhengeri while 143,111 were in Gisenyi, the report said. Some 17,000 refugees at Byumba and 14,500 at Kibuye accounted for most of their number, with much smaller pockets in Kigali, Gikongoro and Cyangugu. The detained people included in the number of affected people included a large number of long-term detainees kept in conditions which amounted to "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment", according to an Amnesty International report from mid-June, cited by UN OCHA.

Government fears DRC returnees include Interahamwe

The Rwandan authorities are concerned that a proportion of the estimated 13,000 Rwandan returnees from North Kivu in the DRC into Gisenyi and Ruhengeri prefectures could be Hutu Interahamwe rebels. Unconfirmed reports estimated that between 1,000 and 2,000 Interahamwe militia members have entered the country and were lying low in Gishwati forest, a OCHA report stated.

However, screening and re-education activities were ongoing
and up to 30,000 more Rwandans were expected to return in the next few months, it added. In addition to the returnees from North Kivu, there have been 2,462 other returnees, mostly from South Kivu but also from Burundi and Uganda, the report added.