Returnees in need of assistance

Groups of refugees have been returning to Eastern DRC, reducing camp numbers in north and east Rwanda. According to an Inter-Agency Humanitarian Situation Report, a UNHCR census carried out in June 2000 showed the total number of 27,000 refugees in camps in Gihembe, Byumba Prefecture and Kiziba in Rwanda, which has reduced by about 5,000 since late July. Groups of refugees have been returning to Eastern DRC following sensitisation campaigns within the camps, said the report, which was issued by the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Around 96 percent of the refugees are ethnic Tutsi, with some 75 percent from Masisi, eastern DRC. The returnees have been grouped in Kirolirwe camp in Mushaki camp, North Kivu (DRC) which host a total of 12,000 internally displaced people (IDPs). According to OCHA-Goma, the UN coordination team has decided that inter-agency humanitarian assistance to the returnees should be provided on the basis of needs. “These returnees should not be considered as a special case but be assisted on the same level as the other IDPs currently in North Kivu”, said the report. But the present level of assistance fell “far below the levels required”, warned the report.