UN agency resettles 97 Congolese refugees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has completed its resettlement programme for Congolese refugees who had fled violence in Ituri District, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), into Uganda's Bundibugyo District, a UNHCR official told IRIN on Tuesday. The UNHCR completed the resettlement less than a week after the programme began. Out of the 11,000 people who the UNHCR had estimated were displaced into Bundibugyo, bordering southern Ituri, 97 had agreed to move to the Kyaka II refugee camp for relief aid. "For now, these 97 individuals are the only ones willing to be moved to the Kyaka II camp," Bushra Malik, UNHCR spokesperson in Uganda, said. "The UNHCR has done a thorough survey of what the refugees want after a team was sent in to Bundibugyo, so that's it." She said those still at Bundibugyo were "self-settled", preferring to make their own arrangements, rather than register as refugees to receive government and UN help. She added that this was because some had family connections in Bundibugyo, while others were waiting to return to Ituri when a comprehensive peacekeeping force is assembled.