Thousands flee Congo war

At least 12,000 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have entered neighbouring Uganda after fleeing fighting in the volatile eastern province of North Kivu, Ugandan officials said on Wednesday.

This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KAMPALA, 6 December (IRIN) - "We have received information about an influx of Congolese refugees in Kisoro. We sent a team there this morning to verify the number of people fleeing and their condition," said Roberta Russo, the Uganda spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The army spokesman in charge of western Uganda, Lt Kiconco Tabaro, said the refugees had crossed or were still at the border locales of Bunagana and Nyahabanda.

"The number of new arrivals could be as high as 20,000," he added.

Fresh fighting broke out on Tuesday in North Kivu between dissident soldiers loyal to a former army commander and government troops. Clashes were reported in Bunagana, 60 km northeast of Goma, the main town in the province, after six days of calm following the retaking of the town of Sake by the Congo's regular army and United Nations troops.

Sake, 28 km northwest of Goma, had been seized by dissident army troops under Gen. Laurent Nkunda on Sunday, but he lost it a day later in a counter-attack by the army. Arnaud Mudumbi, the head of a local primary school in Sake, said: "They lost all they had during the confrontations last week between government forces supported by United Nations troops against Nkunda's dissident troops. The houses were plundered."

However, since the army retook Sake some of its 15,000 residents have started to return but without assistance, according to the local displacement returns committee.

"It is difficult to assist them due to the heavy military presence. For the moment, there has not been any evaluation of their needs," Patrick Lavand'Homme, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma, said.

Nkunda was dismissed from the army in 2005 after starting a revolt the previous year, claiming he was protecting Congo's Tutsi population from massacre by the rest of the eastern population.

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