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About 66,000 people are currently displaced in the Pool region, just northwest of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, since fighting broke out in late March, the UN country team reported on Monday.
It said the UN and partner agencies had registered and helped the one-third of this number, who was now living in Brazzaville and the surrounding districts. The remaining two-thirds, the team reported, were "most probably" living in Pool.
"We are receiving very sporadic and limited information which indicates that most are residing in the forests near their destroyed homes, and preparing their fields for the upcoming planting season," Laura Linkenback, head of the UN coordination unit in the country, said.
Fighting erupted when so-called Ninja militias attacked several government military positions in Pool, the government said. However, Ninja representatives said the clashes were provoked when they discovered government plans to arrest their leader, the Reverend Frederic Bitsangou, alias Pasteur Ntoumi.
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