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The Rwandan-backed rebel movement, Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), has given assistance to thousands of Congolese refugees being repatriated from Rwanda, according to the Rwanda News Agency (RNA).
It said the group had donated food, machetes and hoes to the returning refugees, who fled to Rwanda in the 1990s to escape ethnic persecution, and who are currently in transit sites in Kichanga, some 80 km northwest of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
RCD-Goma leader Adolphe Onusumba took 20 mt of maize and beans, along with 1,000 machetes and a similar number of hoes, to the returnees who are being housed in churches, schools and a tea factory.
The RNA report also warned of the risk of epidemic outbreaks as the returnees were living in "unsanitary conditions", lacking potable water and medicine.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has however expressed "grave concern" over the apparent forced repatriation of the refugees, which began on 31 August.
A statement issued by UNHCR on 5 September said the refugees - who were settled in camps in western and central Rwanda - had been forcibly returned in convoys to the Masisi region of North Kivu. The convoys had been jointly organised by the government of Rwanda and RCD-Goma, the statement said.
The refugee agency has sent two missions to monitor the Congolese returnees.
[See earlier IRIN stories, "UNHCR concerned at "forced repatriation" of refugees" at and "Forced repatriation of DRC refugees continues"]
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