Refugees report forced army recruitment

The refugees were arriving at locations downstream of Liranga, near the confluence of the Ubangui and Congo rivers, with stories of forced recruitment to the DRC army in the towns of Ngombe, Irebu, Mbandaka and Loukolela, he said. Access to refugee groups scattered between Liranga and Njoundou was virtually impossible because of “multiple military checkpoints and armed gangs which harass traffic along the river,” Janowski said. The Forces armees congolaises (FAC) and the rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) have been engaged in heavy fighting in Equateur in recent weeks, and UNHCR estimated last week that it had access to only 14,000 of an estimated 60,000 to 65,000 Congolese refugees in a 700 km stretch along the northern shores of the Congo and Ubangui rivers. A weekend mission by the UNHCR mission found that the food situation was worsening for some 2,000 refugees on the shore between Loukolela and Liranga, with cassava and corn flour running scarce in both of the towns, and even fish difficult to find, Janowski added.