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Rise in refugees a sign of continued fighting - NGO

    NAIROBI

    In the past two weeks, more than 6,000 Congolese have fled South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) across Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania, with an influx of more than 500 each day over the past four days, NGO Refugees International (RI) reported on Thursday.

    "They are arriving in Tanzania with stories of thousands more who cannot get out of the Congo," RI reported.

    UNHCR, the refugee agency receiving the new arrivals, is screening the refugees and placing them in camps already in place for the more than 476,000 refugees currently hosted by Tanzania.

    "The new arrivals report heavy fighting by many armed groups, including the [Rwandan-backed] Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) [armed opposition movement], the Mayi-Mayi [Congolese militias], and various other armed groups. But this time, new arrivals are stating that it is the Mayi-Mayi in South Kivu who are not letting the refugees cross to Tanzania," RI said.

    RI added that unconfirmed reports of the hostilities and continued fighting in the DRC are substantiated by the increasing number of arrivals of Congolese refugees in neighbouring countries such as Tanzania.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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