More than 100,000 CAR refugees need help - Bemba

FLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba told AFP on Monday that more than 100,000 refugees from neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) were in urgent need of help. He said they had crossed the Oubangui river into areas in northeastern DRC controlled by the FLC. “We are calling for urgent assistance and appeal to international humanitarian agencies to come and help the Central African people leaving their country,” he said, describing the situation as “urgent and very serious.” “Every day thousands more refugees are crossing the river,” he said. FLC soldiers supported CAR government forces in late May following an attempted coup against President Ange-Felix Patasse by a mutinous unit of the CAR military.

Last week the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that some 14,000 to 17,000 people had fled to Equateur province in northwestern DRC from Bangui, capital of CAR. UNHCR dispatched a team to Zongo and nearby villages in Equateur to coordinate emergency assistance with aid agencies operating in the area. Aid operations were also planned for some 600 CAR refugees in the towns of Betou and Impfondo in northern Republic of Congo (ROC). UNHCR reported that hundreds of refugees were arriving daily in these areas.