Mbandaka refugee office closed amid “security concerns”

The UNHCR has closed its office in Mbandaka, in the DRC, after flying the last 65 unaccompanied Rwandan refugee children from a centre there to the DRC capital Kinshasa. “The government had cited security concerns in denying international agency staff permission to travel to the city for the past four months,” a press release from UNHCR stated. The Mbandaka office was closed on Sunday 30 April, but the refugee agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were hopeful that efforts to trace the children’s families would be improved with the transfer to Kinshasa, the statement added. The children were the only refugees remaining in Mbandaka from among thousands who trekked there in 1997. Some 12,000 Rwandans were repatriated by air that year from the city. Another 60 unaccompanied minors are being cared for in Mbuji-Mayi, also near the front lines in the DRC conflict, and UNHCR was also trying to secure permission to transfer the group to Kinshasa, the statement added.