Congolese refugees return from Uganda

Some 500 Congolese refugees who fled attacks by the Ugandan rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in eastern DRC into Uganda’s western Bundibugyo district have returned home, the semi-official ‘New Vision’ newspaper reported at the weekend. The paper said the group returned after reports of calm in their home areas. Meanwhile, UNHCR in Kampala on Monday termed press reports on the number of DRC refugees fleeing Interahamwe attacks in North Kivu into Kisoro district as “exaggerated”. The agency’s information officer Bushra Malik told IRIN it was very hard to know the exact numbers so far because the populations keep moving across the border. “They go to DRC to their homes, farms, and do business during the day and come to the Uganda side in the evening,” she said. Press reports said up to 10,000 people had fled. UNHCR is trying to persuade the people to move into transition camps so as to “enable a needs assessment to be carried out”. This would help determine the kind of assistance and also allow for determining their refugee status, she noted. Last week, a team from UNHCR and the government visited the affected areas. They called for moving the refugees away from the “highly volatile” border area, Malik said. UNHCR is in the meantime closely monitoring the security situation in the DRC. “There is a possibility of maybe an influx of refugees from the DRC if the tension in the eastern part of the country continues,” she added.