Refugee flight from Mbandaka worries UNHCR

UNHCR on Tuesday expressed concern over some 10,000 new refugees who have fled fighting in the DRC for the neighbouring Republic of Congo. They include the first refugees from Mbandaka - a large government-held town in the northwest which has long been a strategic target for the rebel Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba. The presence of these refugees was “a major concern to UNHCR because the town is much larger than other population centres so far affected by the forced displacement,” the agency’s spokesman Kris Janowski said. Staff had worked through Sunday night along the remote and dangerous frontier between DRC and the Republic of Congo to distribute relief supplies to the 10,000 refugees in the areas of Njoundou - at the confluence of the Congo and Ubangui rivers, about 500 km north of Brazzaville - and Liranga. UNHCR workers had made two 12-hour journeys upstream to Njoundo from Loukolela, site of the nearest airstrip, Janowski said. Fighting was continuing along the DRC riverbank and traffic on this course was frequently in danger of interception or blockage by armed troops, he added. UNHCR planned an aid delivery for DRC refugees in Liranga (RoC) on Thursday, Janowski said, adding that the recent influx brought to between 30,000 and 40,000 the number of refugees in the Republic of Congo.